"Do You not
know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven, or, to speak more
exactly, in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and
work in heaven have been transferred to Earth below ?"

1
The mental origin of the world and of man.2
Corresponding harmonics.3
Dynamics of alternation.4
Bi-polarity and complementarity.5
Cyclic repolarisation.6
Cause and effect.7
Gender.8
The astrology of the Ogdoad.9
The magic of the Ennead.10 The alchemy of the Decad.

"Content is Atum, father of the
gods.
Content are Shu and Tefnut.
Content are Geb and Nut.
Content are Osiris and [Isis].
Content are Seth and Neith.
Content are all the gods who are in the sky.
Content are all the gods who are on Earth, who are in the flat-lands.
Content are all the southern and northern gods.
Content are all the western and eastern gods.
Content are all the gods of the nomes.
Content are all the gods of the towns.

With this great and might word, which issued from the mouth of THOTH for
Osiris, the Treasurer of Life, Seal-bearer of the gods, Anubis, who claims
hearts, claims Osiris King Pepi ...

god of scribes, science, magic, time, medicine, reckoning, cults,
wisdom, the peace of the gods and companion of MAATdrawing by
Stéphane
Rossini (1992)

THOTH

The meaning of Thoth's name ("DHwtii" or "Djehuti") is lost. He is
represented by the hieroglyph of the Ibis on a standard (Ibis
religiosa). In Babylon, he was called "Tichut". Some proposed
"he of Djehout" (an unknown city), but
Hopfner (1914) believes "DHw" was
the oldest name of the Ibis ("hbj"). Thoth would then mean "he who
has the nature of the Ibis". As early as the Pyramid Texts
(ca. 2400 BCE), Pharaoh is said to be carried over the celestial
river on the wings of Thoth, considered to be the mightiest of the
gods.

From the early 3th century BCE, the epithet "Thoth great, great,
great" ("DHwtii aA, aA, aA") is found at Esna in Upper Egypt,
whereas the expression "Thoth the great, the great, the great"
("DHwtii pA aA, pA aA, pA aA") is part of Demotic texts outside
Memphis, dating from the early 2nd century BCE (cf. the Greek
"Hermes Trismegistos"). Other writings suggest a link between
Hermetism and the cosmology of
Hermopolis (and its Ogdoad).

Another, less common, pictogram for Thoth was the squatting baboon,
who greeted the dawning Sun with cries of jubilation.

Abstract
The religion of Ancient Egypt has been reconstructed by the Greeks (in the
Hermetica), by the Abrahamic tradition (in their Scriptures) and by the
Western Mystery Tradition (Hermeticism). But these reconstructions are flawed.
The Hermetic teachings incorporate an un-Egyptian view on the mysteries
(stressing the mind at the expense of the body). The protagonists of the
revealed religions (Judaism, Christianity & Islam), as well as the
initiators of Hermeticism, were unable to read the hieroglyphs, and if they
did, only allegorical, explaining the obscure with more obscurity. Only
the last two hundred years has a reliable historical reconstruction become
available, offering a basic historical framework.

Not the Qabalah (Jewish or Christian), but the Ancient Egyptian Mystery Tradition
(or Kemetism) is the
backbone of the Western Tradition. Instead of Hermeticism, a return to
Hermetism is invisaged. To approach Kemetism today, ten Hermetic
principles are isolated. Each is associated with a fundamental teaching
found in Egyptian texts. This exercise is possible because the Hermetica
are rooted in the native Egyptian religion, albeit Hellenized. The authors
were Egyptians still able to read the "words of the gods". In this way,
the Western Tradition may finally stretch its roots in perennial
soil, first in Alexandrian thought and from there in the native Egyptian
tradition, its natural ally.

native
Hermopolitan theology : as early as the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 -
2198 BCE), the perennial worship of the native
Egyptian Thoth, "the mightiest of the gods", was centered in Hermopolis
("Hermoupolis Magna"). Although
the contents of this theology is only know from Ptolemaic sources,
"Khnum Khemenu", "the Eight town" (also called "Per-Djehuty", the
"house of Thoth") existed in the Vth Dynasty (ca. 2487 -
2348 BCE) and was associated with
the Ogdoad or company of eight precreational gods (frog heads) &
goddesses (serpent-headed). A few of them were mentioned in the
Pyramid Texts, but the complete list is first mentioned in the
Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE). These deities emerged from
Nun (the primordial,
undifferentiated ocean) and constituted the soul of Thoth. They may
also be understood as further characterizations of this dark,
unlimited pre-creational realm : Amun and Amaunet (hiddenness),
Heh and Heket or Huh and Hauhet (eternity), Kek and Keket or Kuk and
Kauket (darkness), Nun and Nunet or Nun and Naunet (primordial chaos).
Hermopolitan theology
will provide the framework for Ptolemaic Hermetism. Other textual
traces of this worship are found in the Coffin Texts, the
Book of the Dead and the Books of the Netherworld, whereas
in the Late Period (ca. 664 - 30 BCE), its theology was written down
on the walls of more than one Ptolemaic temple (ca. 332 - 30 BCE).
Because Thoth was Lord of Time, he was associated with astrology, in
particular when the astral science of Chaldea entered Egypt (at the
end of the Third Intermediate Period, ca. 1075 - 664 BCE) ;

historical
Hermetism : or the identification of Thoth, "Thrice Greatest", with
Hermes Trismegistus, who, in his philosophical teachings, is Greek and
human (although Egyptian elements persist), but who assumed, in the
technical Hermetica, the cosmicity of the native Egyptian Thoth. The
technical Hermetica are attested under the Ptolemies, and the
existence, in the first century BCE, of an Alexandrian multi-cultural Hermetic
Lodge is likely. The philosophical sources are the 17
treatises of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Latin Asclepius,
the Armenian Hermetic Definitions and the Coptic Hermetica
found at Nag Hammadi, in particular The Eighth and the Ninth Sphere
(Codex VI.6), which all date from the first centuries CE. It is
possible to see Hermetism as a "gnosticism" (for "gnosis",
i.e. direct spiritual insight, is all-important). But Hermetic
gnosticism is particular
to imperial Alexandrian culture, for the notion of an evil demiurge
(as in Christian Gnosticism) is not present. Constituted by Egyptian,
Greek and Jewish elements, Hermetism will influence Judaism (the
Merkabah mystics of the Jewish gnostics of Alexandria), Christianity
(Clement of Alexandria, the Greek Fathers, the "Orientale Lumen") and
the Islam (the Hermetic star worshippers of Harran and
Sufism) ;

literary
Hermeticism : Renaissance Hermeticism produced a fictional
Trismegistus as the Godhead of its esoteric concept of the world as an
organic whole, with an intimate sympathy between its material
(natural) and spiritual (supernatural) components. This view was
consistent with the
humanistic phase of modernism, which was followed by a
mechanization of the world and the "enlightenment" of the
18th
century. These new forces ousted all formative & final causes from
their physical inquiries, and reduced the four Aristotelian categories
of determination (material, efficient, formal and final cause) to material & efficient causes
only. Astrology, magic
and alchemy were deemed scientifically backward & religiously suspect.
"Actio-in-distans" was deemed impossible, and Paganism was Satanical. In
1666, Colbert evicts astrology from the Academy of Sciences (the
court-astrologer Morin de Villefranche, 1583 - 1656, was concealed
behind a curtain in the royal apartment at the time when the future
Grand Monarque was born). In the nineteenth
century, under the influence of the morbid but exotical fancies of the
Romantics, Hermeticism became part of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry,
Theosophy and generalized egyptomania (cf. Golden Dawn, Thelemism,
Pyramidology, etc.). Today it returns as the ideological core of the
expanding New Age religion.

Before the first, steady
interactions between Greek & Egyptian culture emerged (ca. 670 BCE), the
"Hermetic"
particularities of Late New Kingdom
henotheist theology were inscribed on the
Shabaka Stone and
elucidated in its Memphite
theology. This XXVth Dynasty
(ca. 716 - 702 BCE)
stone copy of an important Ramesside papyrus scroll, contained thoughts which
look remarkably like those developed in the contexts of the Platonic, Philonic
and Christian "logos". More than a century ago, Breasted wrote
regarding the Memphite theology :
"The above conception of the world forms quite a sufficient basis for suggesting
that the later notions of nous and logos, hitherto supposed to
have been introduced into Egypt from abroad at a much later date, were present
at this early period. Thus the Greek tradition of the origin of their philosophy
in Egypt undoubtedly contains more of the truth than has in recent years been
conceded. (...) The habit, later so prevalent among the Greeks, of interpreting
philosophically the function and relations of the Egyptian gods (...) had
already begun in Egypt before the earliest Greek philosophers were born ..."
-
Breasted,
1901, p.54.

"Nu", "nw" with
D6, the determinative for action with eyes.
Keep guard over, watch, look, tend, guide, care for, shepherd.
Incidentally, the
adze was used in the "Opening of the Mouth".

On the one hand, according to Stricker (1949), the Corpus
Hermeticum is a codification of the Egyptian religion. Ptolemy I Soter (304
- 282 BCE) and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus (282 - 246 BCE) promised to
publish the secret literature of the three groups of citizens of Egypt : native
Egyptians, Greeks and Jews. For him, Hermetism is the Greek version of a redaction of
Egyptian literature. Its form is Greek, but its contents is Egyptian (the
Septuagint being the equivalent Jewish redaction). On the other hand, father Festugière (1945) claims
the CH contains extremely little Egyptian elements, except for the
context, the ideas expressed being those of popular Greek thought, a mixture of
Platonism, Aristotelism and Stoicism ... Both positions are avoided. Most agree
the CH contains no Christian elements (the opposite is true - cf. the
influence of Philonic thought in particular and Alexandrian philosophy in
general on the apostle Paul -
Quispel, 1992).

Let us conjecture the emergence, under the first three Ptolemies,
of a Greek elitist version of the Egyptian religion, a Graeco-Egyptian religion, and
this among the upper native classes (of priest, scribes, administrators &
high-skilled workmen). This Graeco-Egyptian religion would be based in Alexandria
and Memphis, and (at first) entail a strong emphasis on the native component. It emerged in the priestly scribal class and had its
focus on Thoth, who created the world by means of his Divine words, in accord
with the
verbal tradition founding Egypt. For the Greeks,
Thoth was "Hermes, Trismegistos", indicative of both his antiquity and
greatness.
Because of the important influence of the native intellectual milieu on the
genesis of this Alexandro-Egyptian cultural form,
"Graeco-Egyptian religion turns out to be based on a profound imbalance, in
favour of the autochthonous, between its two constituent elements." (Fowden,
1986, p.19). Zandee (1992, p.161) mentions a Hermetical text
going back to the third century BCE and for
Petrie (1908) at least some passages of the Corpus Hermeticum
had to refer to the Persian period ... This feature proves to be essential in a
possible thematical reconstruction.

But, the Hellenization entailed by using the
Greek language and participating in the syncretic Alexandrian intellectual
climate (the Mouseion and Serapeion), should not be underestimated, and makes
Stricker's proposals too unlikely. These native Egyptians must have been proud of their
Hermopolitan & Memphite theologies (both
verbal & scribal), but eventually accepted to
incorporate uncompromisingly un-Egyptian elements
in their Hermetism (like the popular Greek denial of the physical body, evasive
mysteries and an elusive, vague description of the afterlife). The importance of
the Netherworld is no longer felt.

Many other Greek themes are to be found in the Corpus Hermeticum, showing
Festugière was not completely wrong. In a study of
Zandee published in 1992, the Egyptian influence was confirmed, although
besides the negative view on the body, he also identified the depreciation of
the world, the celestial voyage of the soul (or mystical initiation - cf.
Mahé, 1992) and reincarnation as Hermetic
teachings not to be found in Ancient Egypt. To this list could be added the
Hermetic variant of the Greek mysteries and magical techniques aimed to compel the will of the gods
(impossible in Ancient Egypt). Indeed, the difference between
Egyptian initiation and Greek mysteries is
pertinent (the attitude of the worshipper as well as the responsiveness of the
deities differ).

We may argue that the technical Hermetica are rooted in perennial Egyptian traditions
like
magic ("heka") and the "books of Thoth". It is probable that, at least
insofar as medicine & magic were concerned, this indeed was the case ? The philosophical Hermetica
also share certain features with the Egyptian
wisdom-discourses or instruction genre.

Hermetism is not a "Sammelbecken" (heterogeneous doctrines), nor a single
synthesis, but an autonomous mode of discourse, a "way of Hermes" (Iamblichus),
more theological than philosophical (like Plotinus, who -compared to Plato- was
more religious than political) and foremost (in number) "technical" :
astrology, magic & alchemy. This Graeco-Egyptian
religion was influenced by three major players : the Greeks, the native
Egyptians and the Jews. It could define its own path precisely because of its
roots in the Ancient Egyptian Mystery Tradition, to which most of its members
adhered. In its mature stage, Hermetism manifested the religion
of the mind ("religio mentis") of Mediterranean Antiquity. This
Late Hellenistic Hermetism would survive and eventually fire the European
Renaissance and humanism. But the "ad fontes" principle of the latter
only returned to Late Hellenism. Antiquity would remain unavailable for
several centuries. Not unlike Spinoza's
"amor intellectualis Dei", philosophical Hermetism gave body to an intellectual love for the
One, albeit in modo antiquo, and never without magic & alchemy. In the
17th century, this technical side was left behind by the European academia,
whereas the philosophical Hermetica became part of Hermeticism and its various
branches.

The "gnosis" of Hermetism (the secret it shared through initiation) was an
ecstasy born out of cognitive activities, involving trance, contemplation,
ritual, music and astrology. In Hermetism, astrology served as the bridge
between the purely technical Hermetica -magic, medicine- and the theological &
philosophical Hermetica.
Astrology was concerned with the timing of events, both festive, initiatory or
individual.
"It is certain that the Hermetics had no cult, with priests, sacrifices,
processions and the like. But the texts suggest the existence of (small)
Hermetic 'communities', conventicles, groups or lodges, in which individual
experiences and insights were collectively celebrated with rituals, hymns and
prayers." - Quispel, 1992/1994, p.15.
The Corpus Hermeticum and the Graeco-Egyptian
religion of which it was the chief extant codification, was a spiritual way in
its own right. Alexandrian Hermetism was a mixture of Greek thought with genuine Egyptian
religious traditions. Scholars have pointed to the reverence for the
creative word, the
magical power of divine statues,
the wisdom literature, the bi-sexual
nature of god, the
one and the many, the
Sun as creator, the cosmos as an
ordered whole and also noted Jewish components and imagery.
In this paper, other important Egyptian themes will be put forward.

► the core teachings of Hermetism

Hermetic ontology distinguished between three spheres of being : God, the
world (of the Deities, minerals, plants & animals) and man. These were sympathetically interlinked (X.22-23), allowing us
to glimpse His genius in these beauties (V.1-8), God is also conceived as the
creator of All rather than Himself the All (i.e. pan-en-theism instead of pantheism), and immanentism
is not exclusive. Hermetism tried to rise from "episteme" towards
"gnosis", i.e. from knowledge about God to knowledge of Him
("cognoscere Deum / cognitia Dei"). God is best known and worshipped in the
absolute purity of silence (as the Pythagoreans had claimed, and the Ancient
Egyptians had stressed for millennia - cf.
Hymns to Amun).
Like Late Ramesside Amun-theology, Hermetism was
henotheist, but in a
rational mode of cognition : the One God was deemed essentially hidden (cf.
the Nun) but manifest in "millions of appearances"
and Deities (cf. Atum-Re and the Ennead).

Hermes tells Tat (XIII), that "the tent" or "tabernacle" of the Earthly body was formed by
the circle of the Zodiac (XIII.12 & Ascl.35) and dominated by fate, who's
decrees, according to the astrologers, were unbreakable. The seven planets
represented the "perfect movements" of the Deities, the unalterable "will of
the Gods" as expressed in predictable astral phenomena. Magicians tried to
compel this will, while Hermetism did not try to resist fate, but
irreversibly moved beyond it. The existence of the Deities was acknowledged
(they belonged to the order of creation and were the object of sacrifices
and processions and the celestial Powers ruling the astrological septet).
Indeed, the Deities, Hermes and God were situated in the eighth, ninth and tenth sphere
(Ogdoad, Ennead and Decad). The "eighth" involved
purification, Self-knowledge and the direct "gnostic" experience of the
"Nous" as "logos",
whereas in the "ninth" man was deified by assuming God's attributes,
as did the Godman Hermes, in
particular His Universal Mind, the Divine Nous, Intellect or "soul of God"
(XII.9). The "tenth" or Decad was God Himself for Himself.

In Ancient Egypt, man and the pantheon had never been directly in touch.
Firstly, because the spirit of the deities remained for ever in the sky (the
light of the stars), and secondly because gods only converse with gods. The
only exception was Pharaoh, the mediator between mankind and the deities,
for he himself was the son of the creator god Re and daily returned, by
voice-offerings of truth & justice, the order of being back to its origin,
hereby sustaining creation and sealing the unity of the "Two Lands", namely
Egypt as "image of the world".

In Hermetism, man, the most glorious of God's creations, was animated by a Divine spark
and was therefore -in the depth of his being- truly Divine (I.2, I.30 &
XIII.14). In man, the divide between God and the world was bridged, and so
to awaken him to his own Inner Being, was the goal of Hermetic initiation &
ritual. Every man and woman is a Deity.

"Hermes : Do You not know that You have become of God, and
son of the One, even as I have ?"CH, Libellus
XIII, 14.

Ignorance crippled man (VII), and this is overcome by helping him to
understand his true, Divine nature, bringing him to know God and discovering his own
Divinity (X.9). The crucial choice is therefore a choice between the
"material" world (ruled by the seven Powers of fate) and the "spiritual" Perfect Man, between
the corporeal/visible and the incorporeal/invisible. The attainment of Self-knowledge
(exposure to the true Self) is described in terms of "rebirth" ("palingenesia"
- XIII), viewed as a bursting into a new plane of existence, namely the
"Ogdoadic nature", previously unsuspected and potential.

"I rejoice, my son, that You are like to bring forth
fruit. Out of the Truth will spring up in You the immortal brood of virtue, for
by the working of mind, You have come to know yourself and your Father." CH, Libellus XIII, 22a.

Palingenesia liberates the soul and is a reversal of physical birth (which
imprisoned the soul in the body). This spiritual birth leads (thanks to the
presence of a spiritual master and an initiatory father/son-relationship)
to the soul's perfection through the knowledge of God, a "baptism in
intellect" (IV.3-4). In the process of purification and Self-knowledge,
traditional rituals may have been used, but the higher mysteries (the
Hermetic initiation proper) involved a "mental" or "spiritual" sacrifice
(I.31), the offering of hymns of praise and thanksgiving. The ritual and the
noetic were thus fully integrated.

Indeed, the "Nous", the Divine intellect or "soul of God", binds together the
hierarchy of God, the world (of the Deities, minerals, plants & animals) and
man. In particular, "Nous" is the way of the human soul to free itself from
the snares of the flesh and be illuminated by the "light" of the "gnosis",
for indeed, God is experienced as light. A "good Nous" will be able to
repel the assaults of the world. The spiritual master becomes a
personification of this Divine intellect. The master becomes one with the
Divine Nous ("I am Mind") in the initiation of his disciple. In Hermetism,
this "Nous" is personified by Hermes Trismegistus, the Universal Mind of the
"highest Power" (situated on the Enneadic plane).

► the Hermetic Divine triad

In Ancient Egyptian theology, divine triads were used to express the divine
family-unit, usually composed out of Pharaoh (the son) and a divine couple
(father & mother), legitimizing his rule as divine king. Pharaoh
Akhenaten
had introduced a monotheistic triad (exclusive and against all other
deities) : Aten, Akhenaten and Nefertiti. In Heliopolis, the original triad
was Atum, Shu and Tefnut, in Memphis, Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem emerged,
whereas Thebes worshipped Amun, Mut and Khonsu. The trinity naturally
developed into three or one Ennead.

In Hermetic triad reads as :

God, the Unbegotten One, the
essence of being, the Father of All - the "Decad" ;

Nous, the First Intellect,
the Self-Begotten One, the Mind or Light of God - the "Ennead" ;

Logos, the "son"
from "Nous", the Begotten One above the Seven Archons -
the "Ogdoad".

The One Entity or God (the "Tenth") is known to Its creation as the One Mind
or Hermes which contains
the "noetic" root of every individual existing thing (cf. Plato, Spinoza). This Divine Mind
(the attributes or names of the nameless God) allows all things to
be sympathetic transformations (adaptations, modi) of God.

LOGOS

Hermetism

The "logos" is a "holy word",
coming forth from the Light of the Divine Nous, the Ninth Sphere of
Being, situated between the Decad of God Himself and the Ogdoad of
the blessed souls, fixed stars and the Deities.

Hermetism is
initiatory because it wants to elevate the soul to the level of its true
Divine
nature. Palingenesia is an ascension while alive. Rebirth implies more
than just a confrontation with the Gods (as in Ancient Egypt), but a true
interaction between Perfect Man and -thanks to the Presence of Mind- God.
This interaction leads to a total emergence of the Divine spark in man and
hence to his Deification (finally being completely his own Divine Self and
thus himself "a God", a being permanently realizing the Enneadic nature
(XIII.3,10 & 14). This highest state may be attained in the afterlife,
although the Ogdoadic nature may be realized while alive on Earth.
"Man is a Divine being, not to be compared with the other Earthly beings,
but with those who are called Gods, up in the heavens. Rather, if one must
dare to speak the truth, man truly is established above even these
Gods, or at least fully their equal. After all, none of the celestial Gods
will leave the heavenly frontiers and descend to Earth ; yet man ascends
even into heavens, and measured them, and knows their heights and depths,
and everything else about them he learns with exactitude, and, supreme
marvel, he even has no need to leave the Earth to establish himself upon
high, so far does his power extend ! We must thus dare to say : Earthly
man is a mortal God, the celestial God is an immortal Man. And so it is
through these two, the world and man, that all things exist ; but they
were all created by the One."CH, Libellus
X, 24-25.
The Hermetic triad
can be traced back to Egyptian sources thus :

the one god alone, pre-existing
before creation as the primordial ocean of Nun ;

the self-creative creator (in
the form of Atum-Re), emerging out of the Nun (hatching out of his
egg) as the origin of everything and the "father of the gods ;

the unique "son of god" or
Pharaoh, who mediates between the realm of the deities (sky) and the
realm of humans (Earth).

In this scheme, 10
ontological layers, strata or realms are posited :
One supernatural Divine triad ("agennetos, autogennetos, gennetos") and Seven natural "powers of fate" or "archons".
Hermetism is a gnosticism because it claims knowledge of God is
possible. To know God one has to merge with Universal Mind,
conveying a "special" light, causing a private and inner illumination
or "gnosis". The
purified soul is absorbed into God and realizes its own Divinity. Hermetism is a "way of immortality"
(X.7). But as an Alexandro-Egyptian gnosticism, Hermetism did not
introduce "evil" in the archons : God our Father is Good and His creation
(including His Deities) is beautiful, the crucial moral choice is up to
the individual.

"For from thee, the unbegotten one, the begotten one
came into being. The birth of the self-begotten one is through thee,
giving birth to all begotten things that exists." - Robinson,
1984, p.294.
The Hermetic Divine triad is modalistic and subordinates the hierarchy of
being. God (10 : the Decad) is the first and ultimate level of existence, the One
existing for Unity Alone (the Absolute in its Absoluteness). God (the
incomprehensible, unrevealable and unknowable Father) is unborn, the
"Logos autogenes" and the "son of Nous" born. What this is
can not be said (cf. apophasis : absolute silence, no tales). Hermes (9 :
the Ennead)
is Self-begotten (not created or generated by God) and is the "soul" of
God, the mode of God's holding together His creation by Universal Mind
(Nous) and Word (logos). The Begotten One (8 : the Ogdoad), again a level lower, has no
power of Self-generation, and is part of the process of time and space
(this "son" is the "world" or "logos" given by Hermes as master, teacher and father). This level
of the Perfect(ed) Human beings is higher than the Deities (or at least
equal to them).

The Seven Archons, ruling fate and subordinated to
supernatural command, are beautiful and good (demons may exists, but there
is no evil God). That evil exists at all is due to man's nature and his
slavish prostrations before his physical passions & vices. Clouding his
true nature, these evils cause ignorance and make man subject to the fatal
blows of the blind planetary forces, measured by astrologers and
manipulated by magicians. On their own, both astrologers and magi fail to
reach the Hermetic goal of life : "gnosis" or an inner awakening in the
light coming forth from God's Mind, i.e. an entrance in the supernatural strata of being
(the Ogdoad, which borders the natural world, and the Ennead).

"{O my Father}, yesterday You promised me that
You
would bring my mind into the eighth and afterwards You would bring me into
the ninth. You said that this is the order of the tradition." - Robinson,
1984, p.292.
Resisting fate binds one to
fate. Only the Divine light of "gnosis" allows the soul to move beyond
nature and abide in the supernatural. Here, fate has no hold, for
the Gods never leave their heaven, and, as Paracelsus would claim
centuries earlier : the wise command the stars !

► literary Hermeticism and the Western
Tradition : a few highlights

The earliest links made between Egyptian wisdom and Christianity appear in
the writings of Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215), Origen of Alexandria (185 -
254) and Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430).

"As early as Origen's Contra Celsus (I, 28), we
encounter the claim that it was in Egypt, and specifically as an adult laborer,
that Jesus had learned all the magical arts with which he worked miracles and
on which he based his divinity. The tradition also occurred in early rabbinic
literature, but it was of course suppressed in official Christianity." -
Hornung, 2001, pp.76-77.

"The rabbinic report that in Egypt Jesus was tattooed with
magic spells does not appear in polemic material, but is cited as a known fact
in discussion of a legal question by a rabbi who was probably born about the
time of the crucifixion. The antiquity of the source, type of citation,
connection with the report that he was in Egypt, and agreement with Egyptian
magical practices are considerable arguments in its favor." - Morton, 1978, pp.150-151.
The link between Egyptian wisdom, under the guise of Hermetism, Christianity and Islam is
also pertinent and often forgotten. "The mystical powers of Hermes exerted
themselves far beyond the Pagan world of Late Antiquity, transmuting medieval
Christian and Islamic understanding of the relationship between rational
knowledge and revelation." - Green,
1992, p.85.
This explains why, when Arab translations
overflowed Europe, Hermetic concepts came along.

"The Sabaeans in Harran, who were without a sacred
scripture under Islam, in order to count as a 'people of the Book', elevated the
Corpus Hermeticum into such a holy book in the ninth century, thereby
contributing to the continued existence of Hermetic texts among the Arab
writers." -
Hornung, 2001, pp.53.

The first elements of literary Hermeticism were probably introduced in
Western Europe by the Knight Templars (an order initiated in 1118). This
powerful organization would pass on "the light of the Orient" to Rosicrucianism
and Freemasonry. Both drew on the translations of the Corpus Hermeticum,
available as early as 1471, but also on
alchemy, centuries older.

"The first Latin texts on alchemy were translated from
Arabic in the 12th century, and included the Septem tractatus Hermetis
Sapientia Triplicis and the Liber de Compositione Alchemiae of
Morienus. A leitmotif that occurs with respect of the Arabic and Latin
alchemical texts is the discovery in an underground chamber or crypt of a stela
made of marble, ebony or emerald, with mysterious writing or symbols on it."
- Burnett, Ch (Ucko
& Champion, 2003, p.94).► the Order of the Temple

Jerusalem fell to the curved swords of Islam in 638 AD. In 1095, Pope Urban II
decided to incite the sovereigns of the West to recapture the city. He wanted to
bring together the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) strains of
Christianity, a scandalous divide caused by a fundamental dogmatic difference
about the nature of the Holy Spirit (who, in the Eastern Church, does not
proceed from the Son as in the Filioquist West). In 1099, the year Godefroy de Bouillon of Flanders
conquered the city, the Pope died. It would be recaptured in 1244.

According to Templar tradition, the Order of the Knights Templar was founded by
Huges de Payns, a 48 year old nobleman, and eight other Knights. They took their
vows on the 12th of June 1118 at the Castle of Arginy in the County of Rhône.
The nine Knights were devoted to Christ and pledged to ensure the safety of the
pilgrims to Jerusalem and the protection of the Holy Sepulchre. The Grand Master
was very successful and obtained gifts of land and property to start the order.

By 1129, the Templar Order was established in Europe. The battle standard of the
Order, the Gonfalon Beauceant or Beauseant was a red eight-pointed cross, the
"Croix patteé gueules", on a background of white and black squares. Their motto
was : Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tua da gloriam. The seal of
the Order was the design of two horsemen on the same horse, indicating the vow
of poverty, the fraternity as well as the dual role of monk and warrior.

When Pope Honorius died in 1130, Bernard of St. Clairvaux supported the man who
became Innocent II, to the great advantage of the Order, for eventually his
Templars were subject to no authority save the Pope's. Their Order became a
state within states and enjoyed considerable freedom, endowed with incredible
wealth. The purity of these ideals were compromised by the politics of the Near
East. Although the inner order retained the ideal, the outer structures failed.

This inner order had access to "heretical" knowledge. Hermetical doctrines
taught them the universe was conditioned by the laws of sound, color, number,
weight and measure. Impregnated with the "Orientale Lumen", studying the
"sciences of the Moors", Jewish Qabalah & Muslim Sufism and helped by Arab
translations, they were able to read unknown Greek & Latin authors and drink
from the grand reservoir of Mediterranean and Hellenistic spirituality.
Eventually, new technologies were learned. These were introduced in the West,
fertilized Christian culture, transformed the architecture of churches &
cathedrals and enlightened the intelligentsia of their time. Hence, the Templar Order helped
prepare the European Renaissance ...

In 1312, during a Council held in Vienne, Pope Clement V, backed by the King of
France (who had been refused by the Order) abolished the Order of the Knights
Templar. After this, the Order lost central command, and various groups were
created, like the Order of Montesa in Spain (1317), the Order of Christ in
Portugal (1319) and the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in France (returning
from Scotland). These "Frères Aînés de la Rose-Croix" (1317) drew up a new
Templar Rule adopted by a college of 33 men, renewed and maintained by
co-option.

Templars made links with troubadours, alchemists, qabalists and Muslims, in
particular certain Muslim brotherhoods (the flowering of
Sufism, the mysticism of Islam, was
conterminous with the rise of the Knights Templar). It was one of the tasks of
St. Bernard and his Templars, to bring Judaism, Christianity and Islam together,
and in this intention they saw the work of the Paraclete. They also worked to
allow the latter to manifest in this world again and strove for the "Return of
the Christ in Solar Glory". This was accepted by both Judaism (the coming of the Messiah),
Christianity (the "Parousia") and Islam (prophet Jesus, the "Word" of Allah,
returning to judge the world). Templars are called to sacrifice the
selfish aspect of their natures, so the spirit of Christ may manifest in them
in victu.

► the Zohar

Before the entry of the Hermetica on the European scene, Jewish gnosticism made its move. In the Sepher Zohar (Book of
Splendor), the "classic" of
Jewish mysticism, a commentary on the Torah is presented. Written in
Aramaic, it was purported to be the teachings of the 2nd century Palestinian
Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai. During the time of Roman persecution, so its legend
relates, Rabbi Shimon hid in a cave for 13 years, studying the Torah with
his son. During this time, he is said to have been inspired by God to write the
Zohar ... Around the same time, the Corpus Hermeticum was
codified.

In the 13th century, a Spanish Jew by the name of Moshe de Leon (according to
Graetz "a base and despicable swindler") claimed to
have discovered the text, and it was subsequently published and distributed
throughout the Jewish world. This strategy of finding so-called "lost texts"
would become a standard approach (only in the previous century would it make
real science, cf. the Qumran scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library). The influence
of the Zohar was considerable, also on members of the Western Tradition.
Eventually, its basic scheme, the "Tree of Life", would be viewed as the
backbone of Western spirituality ...

"... the level of abstraction reached by cabalistic
thought was foreign to the Egyptian mindset. Nevertheless, in later esoterica,
we constantly find a link between Egyptosophy and cabala, and the connection
between Moses and Egyptian wisdom to be found in many Christian writers is also
relevant to our theme." -
Hornung, 2001, p.80.

Unfortunately for the literalists, historian Gershom Scholem made clear de Leon
himself was the most likely author of the Zohar. He had forged its
ancient origins. Among other things, but most importantly, Scholem noticed
frequent errors in Aramaic grammar and its highly suspicious traces of Spanish
words and sentence patterns ! There is no real mention of this book in any
Jewish literature until the 13th century. Moreover, recent studies showed how
early qabalah (cf. Sepher Bahir,
Sepher Yetzirah) was influenced by the Greeks, in
particular the mathematical mysticism of Pythagoras (the Sephiroth and the Greek
Decad, numerology and Merkabah mysticism -
Barry, 1999). It even contains elements of Egyptian
thought, introducing precreation and describing it in identical negative terms
as had the Egyptians (cf. Nunand "Ain Soph
Aur").

"... it is sufficient to note that Hebrew Qabalist
doctrines reached their pinnacle of importance in Judaism in Europe during the
Middle Ages. Consequently they also had a huge influence on Western magical
tradition, which drew heavily on Jewish esoteric lore, and as a source for the
inner gnosis of orthodox Christian thought." - Barry,
1999, p.185.
In the best case scenario, Jewish mysticism cannot claim roots earlier
than the Second Temple and in general the impact of Hellenism (Hermetism and
Philonic thought) on Judaism has been largely underestimated by orthodox Jews.
Rabbinical Judaism as a whole may well be the product of a
Hellenistic interpretation of the available scriptural sources (by themselves
posing considerable historical problems regarding authenticity)."Of the large number of Hebrew sacred writings, the canon
of books that were eventually selected for the Hebrew Bible, or 'Old Testament',
as the Christians later called it, was only established after the fall of
Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE, by surviving rabbis at Jamnia who were anxious
to preserve their religion from the catastrophe of the failed Jewish revolt."Barry,
1999, p.175.

► the first translation of the Corpus Hermeticum

"The thirteenth century saw a renaissance of pyramids and
sphinxes. (...) the first western representation of the pyramids appeared in San
Marco in Venice, but they were believed to be the granaries of Joseph, and thus
not part of an esoteric tradition." - Hornung, 2001, p.83.

In Florence, a new Platonic Academy had been founded in 1459. It tried to resume
the traditions of the Athenian Academy closed by emperor Justinian in 529.
Around 1460 CE, Brother Leonardo of Pistoia brought a Greek manuscript from Macedonia
to Florence. Cosimo
de' Medici was fascinated and asked his Plato expert Marsilio Ficino (1433 -
1499) to stop translating Plato in order to look into these texts. In 1463, even
before finishing his Latin version of the works of Plato, he translated them,
which took him only a few months.
For Fincino, the CH contained a philosophy older than Plato's.

This Latin version of the Corpus Hermeticum was extremely influential,
especially its first treatise, the Poimandres, circulating in many copies
before it was published in Treviso in 1471 together with the other books as
Liber de potestate et sapientia Dei (On the Power and Wisdom of God).
Fincino also translated the On the Mysteries of the Egyptians by
Iamblichus, and the latter's Opera omnia, published in Basel in 1561. The original
Greek version of the CH was published in Paris in 1554.

Hermes
Trismegistus
Giovanni di Stefano, 1488, Dom Siena

When the Renaissance finally flowered over Europe, Hermes Trismegistos was
already the patron saint of occult knowledge, a mythical figure crowning
literary Hermeticism.

"In 1612, G. Crosmann put the likenesses of the ten most
famous naturalists, physicians, and alchemists in the bay window of the town
pharmacy in the old Hanseatic city of Lemgo. Here, we find Dioscorides,
Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates ; the sixth is the turbaned Hermes
Trismegistos, and the tenth is Paraclesus - a beautiful example of how Hermes
continued to be treated as a historical personage." -
Hornung, 2001, p.91.

► Freemasonry

In the records of the city of London, the term
"freemason" appears as early as 1375. In
those days, this referred to working masons permitted to freely travel the
country at a time when the feudal system shackled most peasants closely to the
land. They gathered in groups to work on large projects, moving from one
finished castle or cathedral to the planning and building of the next. For
mutual protection, education, and training, they bound themselves together into
a local lodge - the building, put up at a construction site, where workmen could
eat and rest. Eventually, a lodge came to signify a group of masons based in a
particular locality. The premier Grand Lodge was formed in England in 1717, the
official date of the organization of the various
lodges and the start of Freemasonry proper.

Although the style of Masonic ritual suggest Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Templar,
Rosicrucian and qabalistic origins, nothing less is true. A historical link
cannot be established and given the fact that in those days no Mason was able to read
Egyptian, no direct connection with Egyptian spirituality was available.
Unmistakably, the Founding Fathers of Masonry incorporated Egyptian symbols in
their various rituals and grades, as every one dollar bill makes clear. These
archaisms prove the need of Freemasonry to root its teachings and practices in a
nonexistent, fictional historical past in order to give itself, its rituals and
precepts
an air of antiquity. This is especially the case in the Romantic
era, when exotic tastes became fashionable. With Freemasonry, egyptomania no
longer served isolated individuals & groups, but fed the ruling classes, who
were desperately trying to cope with the antagonisms and lack of humanity of
emergent capitalism and the religious wars raging in Europe since the days of
Luther (1483 - 1546). Freemasonry and its founding myth was deemed the alternative of the
educated. The God of revelation was also the "Great Architect", and in every
lodge a Bible or a Koran was present. This to show the "God of the philosophers" was not a
priori in conflict with the God of revelation. But the Roman Church was
antagonistic, as could be expected.

As a system of personal growth within a closed community of kindred spirits,
Freemasonry survived to this day, divided between those who accept God and those
who do not, between those who see symbols as instruments of growth and those who
use them as gates to occult regions of the universe, etc. However, its basic
humanistic outlook is warranted by the existence of atheist Masons, recruiting
among politicians, academics, journalists, lawyers, judges, well-to-do artists
and the captains of industry. Masonry has become (or has always been ?) conservative and opaque.
Its non-transparant and non-democratic (military) features may run against
non-strategic, open communication, which is the foundation of social-economical
justice and equality. Sociologically, Freemasonry is more of an interest group
than a spiritual organization, although some lay claim to precisely the
opposite. As none of the original Egyptian teachings were available to its
Founding Fathers, Masonry, in order to accommodate the new times ahead, is bound
to be reformed.

► the Rosicrucian Order

As a system of belief, Rosicrucianism came to the notice of the general public
in the 17th century. In the two Rosicrucian Manifestoes, a mysterious personage
called "Christian Rosenkreutz" is mentioned. But according to legend, the
symbolism of the Rose and the Cross was first displayed in 11th century Spain.
During a fierce battle against the Moors, an Aragonese Knight named Arista saw a
cross of light in the sky with a rose on each of its arms. A monastery to
commemorate his victory was erected and time later an Order of Chivalry with the
emblem of these Roses and the Cross founding the monastery. The Rose and
the Cross appeared in the banner of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse when he tried
to defend the Cathars against the armies of Pope Innocent III. It was in the
form of a cross, described as "de gueules à la croix et pommettée d'or"
("gueule" means "red", derived from the Arabic "gul", which means "rose"). The
emblem of the Cross with the red Rose in the middle square became the emblem of
the Rosicrucian movement and its many orders, lodges and societies.

In the Fama Fraternitatis (or Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross), Christian
Rosenkreutz is said to have journeyed to Damascus, Damcar, Egypt and Fez. He met those in
possession of "secret teachings". He synthesized the best of these teachings and
went to Spain. Finally, he returned to Germany and chose three men with whom he
founded an order, meant to instruct its members in the knowledge he had obtained
in the Middle East. So the typical founding myth goes. After the publication of the Manifestos,
the Rosicrucians influenced the culture of Western Europe.

Rosicrucianism developed along two lines, on the one hand, the scientists,
intellectuals and reformers in the social, political and philosophical fields
(like Descartes and Boyle) and, on the other hand, those (like Fludd, Dee,
Comenius and Ashmole) concerned with occultism and mysticism (cf. the
distinction between philosophical and technical Hermetica). In France,
Rosicrucianism had a revival climaxing in the early 19th and the first years of
the 20th century. Especially Martinez de Pasqually (1727 - 1774), Louis-Claude
de Saint Martin (1743 - 1803) and Papus (1865 - 1918) are noted.

► the Golden Dawn

In 1865, and Englishman named Robert Wentforth Little founded an esoteric
society, the Rosicrucian Society in Anglia. Membership was limited to Master
Masons. When Little died in 1878, three men took over, a retired medical doctor,
William Woodman (1828 - 1891), a coroner, Wynn Westcott (1848 - 1925) and Samuel
Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers (1854 - 1918), who, as a young man, spent much of
his time in the British Museum, working through piles of dusty manuscripts. He
translated three Medieval magical texts : The Greater Key of King Solomon,
The Kaballah Unveiled and The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin
the Mage.

In 1887, so the story goes, Westcott received from Reverend Woodward, an elderly
parson and author on Freemasonry, a set of cipher manuscripts. He asked the
clairvoyant and inspired Mathers to assist him (one legend says both men forged
the document, in another Westcott found it on a bookstall in Farringdon Street,
and in yet another the document was inherited).

Both men found the code of the cipher was contained in a work of Trithemius, the
influential Steganographia extolled by John Dee (1527 - 1608), the Elizabethan scholar
and astrologer of Queen Elisabeth I. It concerned "angel-magic" and Dee had
secured a copy of it in Antwerp. They uncovered skeletons of rituals and Mathers
expanded them. Together they started the Golden Dawn (GD), a secret Victorian
society aiming to harbor true Rosicrucianism and allow its members to accomplish
the Great Work. A complete system of ritual magic based on the history of
Western occultism was practiced. In contrast with the Masonic policy of the
Rosicrucian Society, the order admitted women members as equals. Its members
were recruited from every circle of life.

In these rituals, Egyptian, Jewish, Greek & Christian elements were combined.
However, the combination of these various traditions led to depletion. A spiritual
tradition is as strong as it is pure, i.e. devoid of notions, ideas, concepts,
symbols, beliefs, rituals etc. foreign to it. Although syncretism may be
intellectually satisfying, it hinders spiritual emancipation. This is certainly
true if the elements combined are very different, as is the case here. Because
Mathers was unable to read Egyptian texts, he could not make the crucial
distinction between the Egyptian approach and the Hellenistic view (incorporated
in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hermetism and Hermeticism). Neither could he isolate the native Egyptian
elements present in historical Hermetism. By nevertheless incorporating Egyptian
deities (in particular the Osiris-cycle), the GD walked the path of egyptomania.

► Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) entered the GD in 1898, introduced to the order
by George Cecil Jones (1873 - 1953). The influence of this
"Hermetic Order" shaped his life. He continued to ferment the teachings of the
GD until he died. In fact, he considered himself and his Thelemic Order of the
Silver Star to be its lawful heir.

The problems between Crowley and the Adepts of the order started in December
1899 (the first time he met Mathers), i.e. by the time he had taken his Portal
grade, the preliminary to the crucial Adept Minor degree. When, in September 1900, he applied to be advanced to the level
of Adepthood, the College of Adepts
refused.

They disliked Crowley, his attitudes and way of life. Some of them probably did
not believe an adept should drink, have fun, fornicate and raising hell with
enthusiasm. His scandalous reputation won the disapproval of his seniors, who
were in their right to refuse him. So, in the same month, Crowley went to Paris,
and was initiated in the Ahathoor Temple by Mathers himself ! Between Paris and
London a deep schism had been in the making and now tensions truly exploded.

When the London adepts heard Mathers had initiated him, the breach was
complete. When applying for the lectures he was now entitled, he was again
refused and physically thrown out. To Florence Farr, Yeats and many others,
Crowley was an outcast, an opportunist who had endangered the link with Mathers.
He promptly notified Mathers and the latter arranged a meeting with the "rebels"
in London. Crowley acted as Mathers' plenipotentiary, and to protect himself,
dressed up in the garb of Highland chieftain, concealing his face with a heavy
black mask. Clearly Mathers had been a poor judge of characters, raising lunatic
power freaks to Adepthood ...

The GD did not recover from the insanity and within a few years became a
dispersed organization, with several Temples conducted by different groupings of
men, each appointing their own Chiefs. Waite kept the Isis-Urania Temple, but in
1914 he closed it down.

Next,
Crowley invented his own egyptomanic movement. In Cairo in 1904, the "minister" of Re
dictated a new revelation to him, the "Book of the Law" ! Crowley became the
"prophet" of the New Age of Horus ! The two major Egyptian deities he
incorporated were the sky-goddess Nut and Horus of Edfu ("Hadit"). Had he known the cults of Ancient Egypt well
enough, he would have realized they had no revelation or dogma, and certainly no
"holy" books (for hieroglyphic writing itself was sacred). Was
Crowley's "law" a concoction of his own power driven subconscious mind ? In
1909, he called in the "demon of demons" and turned Satanic. The
psychosis had become irreversible ...

Do these highlights show the scope of the phantasies, fictions and lies
incorporated into the Western Tradition since the start of the Renaissance ?
Indeed, to identify the backbone of this Tradition with the Qabalah was the
outstanding mistake prompted by the fraud of Moses de Leon. This has perturbated
thousands of excellent minds, causing them to constantly replay their own
illusions, and loose, unlike Rabbi Akiba, after entering the "garden of
delights", their sight, reason or faith in God.

"The impeding turn of the millennium nourishes hopes of a
new spiritual light for humankind in the aspirations of many. Egypt will surely
play a role in such developments in both its forms : pharaonic Egypt and the
esoteric-Hermetic Egypt. There has been increasing talk of the relevance of the
Hermetic Weltanschauung as a point of view that can contribute to making sense
of our modern world by seeking a direct connection with the original wisdom of
the oldest cultures and with the core idea of all esoteric thought, according to
which the ancient wisdom continues to be valid even in a world that has been
transformed." -
Hornung, 2001, pp.200-201.

► Kemetism

Can we today turn the page ? Can a spiritual movement emerge which focuses on a
thematical reconstruction of Ancient Egyptian spirituality, and this based on the evidence
of contemporary
science regarding Ancient Egyptian religious practice in
general and its basic ritual matrix in particular ? Several
individuals work along those lines, coupling study with ritual practice (Hope,
1986, Schueler, 1989,
Clark, 2003,
Draco, 2003).

In such a "Kemetic" reconstruction, no Jewish, Greek, Hermetic, Christian or Hermeticist elements
should persist. Is this really possible, and if so, is such spirituality indeed the true backbone of our Western Tradition ?
The advantage being the isolation of a tradition untouched by what today may be
called "foreign elements".

Such an exercise is not easy (not to speak of the contextual limitations of any
author). For Hermetism did retain parts of the Egyptian Mystery Tradition, and
in a lesser degree, the same goes for Hermeticism, and yes, even for the
revealed religions, Christianity first. The thematical reconstruction sought is
approached in two steps :

the influence of Egyptian spirituality on
Alexandrian Hermetism ;

the form of the basic matrix of native Egyptian religion.

In this paper, the first step
is dealt with. The second will only be touched in the Epilogue.
In the following ten paragraphs, we study ten basic notions of
Hermetism (in other forms present in the mix of Hermeticism and in the
"mystical" traditions of the religions). We try to find their Ancient Egyptian equivalent "in embryo" :

mentalism
:
the gods, the world and humanity are the outcome of Divine thought ;

correspondence :
the same characteristics apply to each unity or plane of the world ;

In earlier studies, the special
cognitive features of Ancient Egyptian
thought,
language & literature have been explained.
Grosso modo, these imply the difference between
rational thought,
initiated by the Greeks, and ante-rationality. The latter is the mode of thought
of pre-Greek Antiquity and of societies untouched by
the
linearizing streak of the Hellenes. Before the advent of rationality,
three modes of thought prevailed, as Piaget,
genetical epistemology and
neurophilosophy made clear. These are
mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational thought, in which the Ancient
Egyptians excelled. Clearly Hermetism was codified using Greek conceptual
rationality (giving birth to the influential systems of Plato and Aristotle).
Hence, if we try to correlate these concepts with their native Egyptian
equivalent, this cognitive difference has to be taken into account, and the
multiplicity of approaches characterizing Egyptian thought has to be made an
integral part of the equation. So because of this crucial difference, in all my
translations of Egyptian texts and commentary, terms related to the Divine are not capitalized
(i.e. god, gods, goddess, goddesses, divine, and pantheon), while in Hermetism
and all rational discourses
they are. This in accord with the contextualizing feature of anterationality,
while rationality always puts context between brackets, and by doing so
articulates an abstract, theoretical concept of the Divine.

"Indeed,
the lips of Pharaoh Merenre are as the Two Enneads.
This Pharaoh is the Great Speech."Pyramid Texts,
§ 1100.

"The
tongue of this Pharaoh Pepi is the pilot in charge of the Bark of Righteousness
& Truth."Pyramid Texts, § 1306.

Line 53

"There comes into being in the mind ; there comes
into being by the tongue. (It is) as the image of Atum !

Ptah is the very
great, who gives life to all the gods and their kas. It all in this mind
and by this tongue.

Horus (as mind) came into being in him (Ptah) ; Thoth (as tongue) came
into being in him as Ptah.

Life power came into being in the mind and by
the tongue and in all limbs, in accordance with the teaching that it (the
mind) is in all bodies and it (the tongue) is in every mouth of all gods,
all men, all flocks, all creeping things and whatever lives ; thinking
whatever the mind (of Ptah as Horus) wishes and commanding whatever the
tongue (of Ptah as Thoth) wishes !"

"God is not devoid of sense
and thought, as in time to come some men will think he is ; those who
speak thus of God blaspheme through excess of reverence."CH, Libellus IX, 9.

"Mind, my son Tat, is of the very substance of
God, if indeed there is a substance of God ; and of what nature that
substance is, God alone precisely knows.
Mind then is not severed from the substantiality of God, but is, so to
speak, spread everywhere from that source, as the light of the Sun is
spread far and wide."CH, Libellus XII, 1."... Mind, the Father of all, he who is Life and
Light, gave birth to Man, a Being like to Himself. In men, this mind is
{the cause of Divinity}. Hence, some men are Divine, and the humanity of
such men is near to Deity ..."CH, Libellus I, 12.
"God is not Mind then, but the cause to which Mind owes its being."CH, Libellus II, 13.
"But if You have the power to see with the eyes of the Mind, then, my son,
He will manifest himself to You. For the Lord manifests Himself
ungrudgingly through all of the universe, and You can behold God's image
with your eyes, and lay hold on it with your hands."CH, Libellus V, 2.

"... it is as thoughts which God thinks, that all things are contained in
Him."CH, Libellus XI, 20.

In
Heliopolis, the supreme creator-god is
conceived as a differentiating totality ("tm" or Atum) emerging
out of an infinite sea of possibilities ("Nun"), in
Alexandria, it is a Unity producing a Decad.

By thought & speech, Ptah conceives the world "in the image" of Atum.
The Egyptian distinction between the precreational totality (Nun > Atum) and the
"heart and tongue" (Ptah) of the divine, returns in Hermetism as the
unknowable Decad of God and the Enneadic Light of the Divine Nous. In
Hermetism, this Divine Nous is autogenous, while in Egyptian thought, Atum
is.

Both Memphis and Alexandria underline the importance of
the spoken and written word. Already in the Old Kingdom,
Pharaoh was the Great Speech and his
magic powerful, and dreaded, even by
the deities. But in Late Ramesside
Memphite theology, Ptah was the true primordial "god of gods", superceding
Atum, in who's "image" (of totality) the universe was created (as
demiurge), and establishing the supremacy of the divine word and speech.
Memphite theology is explicit : every thing was made by Ptah's
mind and spoken words.

Likewise, in Hermetism, the Divine Logos is the "son of God"
coming forth from the Light of the Divine Nous, the teacher
who, not unlike the one evoked in the
Maxims of Good Discourse, gives his pupil
access to the Divine Nous, a direct experience (gnosis) of the Godman
Hermes. The idealist notion of the universe as a mental
creation of The All, making all mind, being typical for Hermetism. The
fact this teacher is "Ogdoadic" and not "Hebdomadic" (as was Pharaoh), may
refer to the Greek escape from fate and the physical world (whereas the
Egyptians saw the divine at work in all planes of creation).

The magical power of words is acknowledged by both traditions. Magic
involves the power of efficiency (effectiveness) and the ability to
counter every possible inertia and opposition, executing intent to its
full capacity.

Especially Pharaoh is the "Great Magician", who is able, like the gods, to create
by means of speech. He alone was the "son of Re", divine and able to encounter the
deities face to face. His voice-offerings to Maat ensured the continuity
of creation. By speaking the right words, the whole of creation could be
rejuvenated. Likewise (but on another ontological level), the "son of
God", the Ogdoadic teacher, brings the pupil directly in contact with the
Enneadic Light of Nous.

Also soteriologically, speech was all-important. In Egyptian funerary
literature, judgment depended upon
the lightness of the heart ("ib"), and those who had abused their tongues
made their hearts heavier than the feather of truth. They would see their
names ("rn") annihilated, their essence obliterated.

The parallels drawn do not allow for an identification of both traditions,
as major category-shifts occur. Indeed, together with the rejection of the
physical bodyn (cf. infra), mentalism is an outstanding feature of the
Hermetica. Nevertheless, in the overall semantic
pattern major points overlap. The mentalism of Hermetism was not
implanted on the native Egyptian intellectuals part of the Hermetic lodge
"from above", but could make use of the available, longstanding verbal
tradition of Egypt, linearize and "perfect" it in Greek style ...

"May You shine as Re, repress
wrongdoing, cause Maat to stand behind Re, shine every day for him who is
in the horizon of the sky."Pyramid Texts, § 1582.
"Collect what belongs to
truth, for truth is what the King says."Pyramid Texts, § 2290."Thus said Atum : Tefnut is my living daughter, and
she is with her brother Shu. 'Living One' is his name, 'Truth' is her
name. I live with my two children, I live with my two twins, being in
their midst, one near my back and the other near my belly. 'Life' lies
down with 'Truth', my daughter, one within me and the other behind me. I
stand up between them, their arms being about me."Coffin Texts, spell 80, 32.
"... your food is Maat, your drink is Maat, your bread is Maat, your bear
is Maat. The oil of your head is Maat, the clothing of your body is Maat,
You inhale incense in the form of Maat, the breathe of your nostrils is
Maat."Ritual of the Daily Cult, Moret, 1902, p.141."O Re, generator of Maat, it is
to him that we offer her. Place Maat in my mind, so that I may make her
rise to your Ka, for I know You live by her and that it is You who has
created her body."Tomb of Neferhotep, Davies, plate 37.

"... all things are one, and the One is all things,
seeing that all things were in the Creator before he created them all. And
rightly has it been said of Him that He is all things, for all things are
parts of Him."Asclepius I,
2a.
"Thus mortal things are joined to
things immortal, and things perceptible by sense are linked to things
beyond the reach of sense ; but the supreme control is subject to the will
of the Master who is high above all. And this being so, all things are
linked together, and connected one with another in a chain extending from
the lowest to the highest ; so that we see that they are not many, or
rather, that all are one."Asclepius III, 19c.

"Do You not know, Asclepius, that
Egypt is an image of heaven, or, to speak more exactly, in Egypt all the
operations of the powers which rule and work in heaven have been
transferred to Earth below ?"Asclepius III, 24b."There are these three then : God, Cosmos and Man.
The Cosmos is contained in God, and man is contained in the Cosmos. The
Cosmos is the son of God, man is son of the Cosmos, and grandson, so to
speak, of God."CH, Libellus
X, 14b.

"There is communion between soul and soul. The souls of the Gods are in
communion with those of men, and the souls of men with those of the
creatures without reason. The higher have the lower in their charge ; Gods
take care of men, and men take care of creatures without reason. And God
takes care of all ; for He is higher than all. The Cosmos then is subject
to God ; man is subject to the Cosmos ; the creatures without reason are
subject to man ; and God is above all, and watches over all. The Divine
forces are, so to speak, radiations emitted by God ; the forces that work
birth and growth are radiations emitted by the Cosmos ; the arts and
crafts are radiations emitted by man."CH, Libellus
X, 22b.
"That which is Below corresponds to
that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is
Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Entity."Tabula Smaragdina, 2.

The universe is not a collection of disjecta
membra, but an organic whole held together by the law of life (Shu)
and truth (Tefnut/Maat), serving the order of light (Atum). This cosmicity of creation is
represented by Maat, the "daughter of Re", a deity simultaneous with the
universe, and a personification of the law of dynamic equilibrium between
all units of creation. The purpose of creation being the dynamics of
moving equilibriums within the margins of a recurrent cycle, perpetuated for
ever (cf. eternity-within-everlastingness, the "neheh" time of Atum in the
"djed" time of Nun).

In
Heliopolitan thought, the Ennead "in the sky" cares for the "10th" or Horus
"on Earth", the latter being the overseeing quality of the "great house"
or Pharaoh, the divine "nesu" or king, the unity of the Two Lands. By
offering Maat to his father Re, the king guarantees the blessings of the
gods and the survival of the created order, always on the verge of
collapsing back into the chaos of Nun. In himself, the divine kings
assembles the whole of nature, and keeps the balance within the margins of
truth & justice.

"Said he (Anubis) that is in the tomb : 'Pay attention to the decision of
truth
and the plummet of the balance, according to its stance !'"

In Hermetism, the harmony, agreement or correspondence between all planes
of manifestation are acknowledged. As everything in the universe emanates
from the same source, the same laws apply to each unity or combination of
units. In this approach, planes, or groups of degrees of
manifestation are distinguished, and these can be
traced back to Ancient Egyptian conceptions.

In Heliopolitan thought, all things emerge with Atum
out of Nun, and so creation is divine. In the Platonic conception, before
God created, ordered (geometrized) the world, the elements preexisted in a
state of chaos and formlessness. The world of ideas are the eternal forms
of the Good. In Egyptian thought, the Ennead of Atum (the series of 8
deities headed by the autogenitor), are
"divine generations" who shape the conditions (space & moist), the
structure (sky and Earth) and the drama of the universe (the
Osiris-cycle). In physical reality, Horus-Pharaoh unites every part of
creation, for he is both "of the sky" and alive "on Earth", both a god and
a human being. This dual nature allows him to mediate between higher and
lower and to inspire the deities to take care of Egypt, for he alone is
able to "offer Maat" and satisfy Atum-Re, the supreme creator-god.

"When You ascend from the horizon, my scepter will
be in my hand as one who rows your bark, O Re." Pyramid Texts, § 368.
"When he is sluggish, noses clog,
everyone is poor.
As the sacred loaves are pared,
a million perish among men.
When he plunders, the whole land rages,
great and small roar.
People change according to his coming,
when Khnum has fashioned him.
When he floods, Earth rejoices,
every belly jubilates,
every jawbone takes on laughter,
every tooth is bared."Hymn to Hapy, XII,1.

"The movement of
the Cosmos itself consists of a twofold working ; life is infused into the
Cosmos from without by eternity ; and the Cosmos infuses life into all
things that are within it, distributing all things according to fixed and
determined relations of number and time, by the operation of the Sun and
the movements of the stars. (...) The process of time is regulated by a
fixed order ; and time in its ordered course renews all things in the
Cosmos by alternation. All things being subject to this process, there is
nothing that stands fast, nothing fixed, nothing free from change, among
the things which come into being, neither among those in heaven nor among
those on Earth. God alone stands unmoved ..."Asclepius III, 30."The Cosmos also is ever-existent, but it exists in
process of becoming. It is ever becoming, in that the qualities and
magnitudes of things are ever coming into being. It is therefore in
motion, for all becoming is material movement. That which is incorporeal
and motionless works the material movement ..."CH, Libellus
X, 10b.

In both traditions, the Sun was all-important. The
Egyptians identified the disk of the Sun (the
Aten) with the visible aspect of the creator-god Atum-Re. The
Hermetics saw the Sun as the creator of all good things and the ruler of all
ordered movement (cf. the cycles of the planets). These and other diurnal
and annual cycles, underline the constant
change and the restless condition of creation. The movement of the Sun is
an example of change itself, for Re is constantly (re)transformed. He is a
beautiful youth at dawn and an old man at dusk. He is rejuvenated during the
6th Hour of the Night (cf. the
Amduat). The view of Egypt as a symbol of endurance is true,
but only if
by it is meant, adaptation to continuous, eternal cyclic process. In
spiritual terms, this implies a return to the first time ("zep tepi") when
Atum creates all things for ever and ever (namely an entry into his
eternity-in-everlastingness).

Light is a powerful metaphor. The vibration of the radiation emitted by
the Sun is not constant, neither is the light of the scintillating stars.
Dawn and dusk unveil the splendors of vibrating colors. Various levels
of vibration are observed and by way of this image, upper and lower, the
sky and the Earth, macrocosmos and microcosmos may be seen as a
differentiated organic whole, with various strata of vibrations
interacting with each other and forming layers of co-relative rates. The
planes of reality are planes of vibration, so many differentiations
between spirit (sky) and Earth. Only Pharaoh lives his life on all
planes : he is a physical incarnation of Horus and the "son of Re" and so
divine. In the Hermetica, only Hermes, the Divine Nous has proximity to
the Decad, the essence of God, unity.

The power of the Sun and the other stars is the origin of the life of the
universe. This is the movement of the Cosmos "from within".
Nun
and Atum are the movement "from without", the possibility of rejuvenation
of all things, Re included (cf. the
Amduat).

The Nile with its annual inundation was another crucial (Sothic) process. Every year Egypt herself was transformed. Large stretches of
water would cover the land and it would seem as if the primordial waters
had come back. In most major temples, the Nile would enter the hypostyle hall
with its high pillars (with founding myths inscribed on its high walls) and
so recreate the mythic scene of the first time.
The sanctuary with its "sanctum sanctorum", built on a height,
would remain dry and symbolize the effect of the presence of the soul of
the deity, making the risen land ("ta-tenen") escape the waters. Too
much water would devastate the area and cause famine (too little had the
same effect). The margins of the balance (of Maat) had to be respected, or the whole of Egypt was
in serious trouble. When these waters withdrew, fertile black silt was
left behind (cf. "kmt", or "black" land). Every year
in mid July this Sothic cycle started again with the Heliacal rising of the star Sirius, linking stellar and Solar
phenomena with this life-bearing agricultural, and festive event, the "good Nile" given by the gods to
Pharaoh because of the latter's offerings, in particular Maat, i.e. truth
& justice, to his father Re, and by doing so linking up all phenomena
of nature.

CHANGE

Egyptian
thought

Stability is continuous change, the endless
repetition of the cycle of Atum-Re, his continuous, ongoing creation
on the first occurrence ("zep tepi"), the beginning of time hidden in the
everlastingness of the vast & inert waters of
Nun. Also : the
endless diurnal and nocturnal cycle of Re.

Hermetism

All things being subject to change, there is
nothing that stands fast, nothing fixed, nothing free from change,
among the things which come into being, neither among those in
heaven nor among those on Earth. God alone stands unmoved.

Those who see Ancient Egypt as an outstanding example
of stability, endurance and everlastingness have to realize the "Djed
Pillar Festival" was a cultic celebration of the symbol and power of
stability repeated every year. Indeed, it was held annually in
Egypt and was a time of spiritual rejuvenation for everybody. The priests
raised the "djed pillar" on the first day of "shemu" (the season of
harvest on the Nile). The people then paid homage to the symbol and
conducted mock battles between good and evil. Oxen were driven around the
walls of the capital, honoring the founding of the original capital,
Memphis, the "white walls". With the harvest, the physical proof of
Egypt's endurance had been given ...

"To say : Hail to You, Ladder of the god ! Hail to You, Ladder of Seth ! Stand up,
Ladder of the god ! Stand up, Ladder of Seth ! Stand up, Ladder of Horus,
which was made for Osiris (so) that he might ascend on it to the sky and escort
Re !" Pyramid Texts, § 971.
"I, Pharaoh Wenis, ascend on this ladder which my father Re made for me. Horus and Seth
take hold of my hands and take me to the Netherworld."Pyramid Texts, § 390.
"O Pharaoh Teti, Horus has come that he may seek You, he has caused Thoth to turn
back the followers of Seth for You, and he has brought them to You
altogether. He has driven back the heart of Seth for You, for You are
greater than he. You have gone forth in front of him, your nature is
superior to his ..."Pyramid Texts, §§ 575 - 576.
"O Osiris King Teti, mount up to Horus, betake yourself to him, do not be
far from him. Horus has come that he may recognize You. He has smitten
Seth for You bound, and You are his fate. Horus has driven him off for
You, for You are greater than he ..." Pyramid Texts, §§ 586 - 587.

"Isis has reassembled You (Osiris the King), the heart of Horus is glad
about You in this your name of 'Foremost of the Westerners', and it is
Horus who will make good what Seth has done to You." Pyramid Texts, § 592.

"Geb commanded that the Ennead gather to him. He judged between Horus
and Seth ; he ended their quarrel. He installed Seth as King of Upper Egypt in
the land of Upper Egypt, at the place where he was born, in Su (near
Herakleopolis). And Geb made Horus King of Lower Egypt in the land of
Lower Egypt, at the place where his father was drowned, which is the "Division-of-the-Two-Lands" (near Memphis). Thus
Horus stood over one region, and Seth stood over one region. They made
peace over the Two Lands at Ayan (opposite Cairo). That was the division
of the Two Lands.
Shabaka Stone, lines 7 - 9.
"Then Horus stood over the land. He is the uniter of this land, proclaimed
in the great name : Tenen, South-of-his-Wall, Lord of Eternity. Then
sprouted the two Great in Magic upon his head. He is Horus who arose as
King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who united the Two Lands in the Nome of the
(White) Wall, the place in which the Two Lands were united. Reed (heraldic
plant for Upper Egypt) and papyrus (heraldic plant for Lower Egypt) were
placed on the double door of the House of Ptah. That means : Horus and
Seth, pacified and united. They fraternized so as to cease
quarreling wherever they may be, being united in the House of Ptah, the
'Balance of the Two Lands' in which Upper and Lower Egypt had been
weighed."
Shabaka Stone, lines 13c - 16c.

"... and the Sun is
the begetter of all good, the ruler of all ordered movement, and governor
of the seven worlds. Look at the Moon, who outstrips all the other planets
in her course, the instrument by which birth and growth are wrought, the
worker of change in matter here below. (...) Note how the Moon, as she
goes her round, divides the immortals from the mortals."CH, Libellus
XI, 7.
"All bodies then of which the coming-into-being is followed by destruction
must necessarily be accompanied by two movements, namely, the movement
worked by the soul, by which bodies are moved in space, and the movement
worked by nature, by which bodies are made to grow and to waste away, and
are resolved into their elements when they have been destroyed. Thus I
define the movement of perishable bodies."
Stobaeus, Excerpt IVA,
3.

All manifested things have two sides, with manifold degrees between
two extremes. Growth and corruption, good and evil, light and darkness,
Sun and Moon are fundament for the order of creation. This principle
dominates all possible areas of Egyptian thought. Politically (Upper
versus Lower Egypt), physically (desert versus fertile land), economically
(a "good" versus a sluggish or plundering Nile), ethically ("isefet"
versus "maat"), metaphysically (deities in the sky versus Pharaoh on
Earth), theologically (Horus versus Seth) and funerary ("feather of Maat"
versus "heart", heavenly versus terrestrial Nile), duality and its transcendence play an essential role.

Even before creation, at the first occurrence, when Atum self-creates, his
unity is only fugal, for as soon as the creator-god hatches out of his
egg, he splits in two deities : Shu and Tefnut. Also in Memphis duality
was revered ; Ptah created all by simultaneously thinking (heart, mind)
and speaking (tongue, speech), and not (as the Greeks would have it) by
thinking first and then acting (contemplation before action).

Of all dualities, the polarity between Horus and Seth was the most
thematized, for it involved the founding of the Pharaonic State
itself. Pharaoh as the "Lord of the Two Lands" kept Egypt together and
physically represented its unity. In his royal titulary, his most
important throne name was always preceded by "King of the Dual Kingdom".
Probably this duality also represented the political realities of the
Predynastic Period, with two major chieftains confronting each other (the
"followers of Seth" in the South and the "followers of Horus" in the
North).

This polarity was not static. Between Horus and Seth various stages may be
discerned. The original, unending conflict (with various evils done to
both) is stopped by giving each its domain, but with no avail. The battle
recommences until the goddess Geb or Neith decides in favour of Horus and Seth is
punished (he has to carry Osiris and every night he reverses what Apophis, the gigantic snake
of chaos, tries to do to Re, namely to stop his course by drinking up the
Nile).

In fact, in the Pyramid Texts, we find traces of the cult of Seth,
deemed to assist, together with Horus, Pharaoh in the afterlife. Pharaoh
himself is the unity of both, as well as the "power of powers" (cf.
Cannibal Hymn) transcending both. In the Late
Period, Horus and Seth form one deity, further proof of both the
bi-polarity as the step beyond it.

POLARITY &
COMPLEMENTARITY

Egyptian
thought

Pharaoh, as "Lord of the Two Lands" guarantees
the unity necessary to mediate the dual nature of all things,
symbolized by Horus and Seth, manifestations of the two sides of the same
(Horus-Seth).

Hermetism

All poles are
complementarities as Sun and Moon, manifestations of the same principle
- differences consist
of varying degrees between two poles.

The presence of Seth is another element pointing to the complemental
polarity in a creation envisioned as an ordered, organic
whole. Atum-Re and his Ennead is completed by the "good" Horus, the king
of Egypt and "son" of his murdered father (the "good" Osiris,
"Ausir" or "many eyed", who is "wennofer", "eternally good"). Indeed,
the cause of "isefet" (evil) is found within the Ennead ! Evil is deified
and opposed to the good. Seth is the cause of disruption and chaos. All
possible turbulence and havoc are attributed to him and his followers.
Seth is not absence of being or goodness, but the positive presence of
active evil, natural (storms) and moral (murder, sodomy). He has a cult, priests and followers, among which Pharaohs.
Rejecting or negating the powers and strength of evil (cf. the "privatio
boni" of Plotinus) does not stop it. Only by giving evil its name and
place can it be made useful to the purposes of creation and order (like
Seth carrying Osiris or protecting Re against Apophis, his own demonical servant, in the 7th
Hour of the Duat). While Seth
is perverse and enjoys wickedness, Apophis is the ultimate evil step : utter
annihilation. With this concept, Egyptian thought reached the "bottom of
the pit" and found its ultimate negative symbol for the anti-life scheme
present in creation. Apophis was never worshipped, had no sacred cult
area, but was ritually execrated or killed for thousands of years. Here
the rejection is absolute. The "enemies of Re" were imagined walking on
their heads, burning in pits or eating faeces and drinking urine. Apt metaphors for
a complete reversal of the conditions of the scheme of life.

"Ascend and descend.
Descend with Nephthys, sink into darkness with the
Night-bark.
Ascend and descend.
Ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark."
Pyramid Texts, § 210.

"Pharaoh's lifetime is eternal repetition. His limit is eternal duration."Pyramid Texts, § 412,
Cannibal Hymn.""To say : O my father
Pharaoh Merenre, I have
come and I bring You green eye-paint. I bring to You the green
eye-paint which Horus gave to Osiris. I give You to my father Pharaoh
Merenre,
just as Horus gave You to his father Osiris. Horus has filled his Empty
Eye with his Full Eye."Pyramid Texts, §§ 1681 - 1682.
"Raise yourself, O my father Osiris King Merenre, for You are alive." Pyramid Texts, § 1700.
"To say : Osiris awakes, the languid god wakes up, the god stands up, the god has
power in his body." Pyramid Texts, § 2092.
"O Osiris, the inundation comes, the flood hastens, Geb engenders. I have
mourned You at the tomb, I have smitten him who harmed You with scourges.
May You come to life, may You raise yourself because of your strength."Pyramid Texts, §§ 2111 - 2112.
"Evil is fled, crime is gone.
The land has peace under its Lord.
Maat is established for her Lord.
One turns the back on falsehood.
May You be content, Wennofer !
The son of Isis has received the crown.
His father's rank was assigned to him.
In the Hall of Geb Re spoke, Thoth wrote,
the council assented, your father Geb decreed for You,
one did according to his word."Great Hymn to Osiris.

"Coming into being is the beginning of destruction, and destruction is the
beginning of coming into being."Stobaeus, Excerpt XI,
aphorism 35."Such is the new birth of the Cosmos, it is a making
again of all things good, a holy and awe-striking restoration of all
nature, and it is wrought in the process of time by the eternal will of
God."Asclepius III,
26a.

By themselves, the cycle of Re and the
Sothic rhythm are outstanding examples of ebb and flow, the pendulum-swing
manifest in all things. This inner mechanism of nature was identified with
Osiris, and the various phases of his life parallel what happens in the
natural world, in particular in the agricultural life associated with the
inundation of the Nile. The myth of Osiris summarizes the fundamental
rhythms lived by man, nature and the deities.

Essential in this mythology
was the restoration of Osiris by his son Horus. The latter had his Left Eye
damaged in the battle with Seth, but it was healed by Thoth. He then brings his
Restored Eye, the Wedjat, or Eye of Wellness, to his weary father, who, already in the Netherworld, resurrects
there to become king again (but of the underworld). This act of giving the
Eye of Horus, encompasses all material offerings, of which it is the
sublime example. Together with "voice-offerings", the Eye of Horus was the
most powerful way to establish contact with the gods.

Osiris is the good King of Egypt : Osiris
lives on Earth and establishes all good things, he brings civilization to
Egypt and is loved by all, except Seth and his followers ;

Osiris assassinated, dismembered and scattered : Osiris is
killed by his brother Seth and his body scattered all over Egypt ;

Osiris reassembled and reanimated by Isis :
his wife and sister Isis recollects his body (except his penis) and
revivifies it ;

Osiris inseminates Isis who gives birth to Horus :
before Osiris goes to the Duat, Isis, the Great Sorceress, is able
to take his seed and give birth to Horus ;

Osiris avenged by his son : although in his
youth Horus was sodomized by his evil uncle, he grows up with the help of
Isis and prepares to avenge his father by fighting Seth ;

Osiris resurrected by Horus : his Left
Eye restored by Thoth, Horus is declared King of Egypt and descends
into the Netherworld to bring his Eye of Wellness to his father, so as to
resurrect him and restore all his powers ;

Osiris "King of the Netherworld" : Osiris
reassembled, reanimated and finally resurrected by Horus is
enthroned in the Netherworld as its king. In this capacity, he
judges the dead and nobody is able to move further without being judged
by him. He is the guarantee, on yonder side of existence, of rejuvenation
and an eternal life featuring the best of this life.

Although destruction and death are part of the
natural order, and thus inescapable, a deeper logic may be found, for all
destruction is the beginning of renewal, the coming into being of
something totally new. In this sense, death is a way to become more and
more spiritual and an entry into a new state of existence, as Osiris
shows. However, this is not automatic, for without the help of the living
(Horus), the dead are weary and unhappy. Life and death are intimately
linked and the needs of the dead are satisfied by the restoration brought
about by the lovingkindness of the living, who take the trouble to
"descend" and meet the dead on their own plane, offering them the
life-bearing power of the "Eye of Horus", the ultimate tool of restoration
and renewal. A direct relationship between father and son, between the
power to create and its offspring underlines Egyptian theology since
Ptahhotep. The deceased Pharaoh is not
dead but alive. When reaching the sky of Re, he makes sure his son is
blessed by a "good Nile", and so may become a powerful king in his own
right. The best outcome is given when the son excels his father, as the
Maxims of Good Discourse underline.

RHYTHM

Egyptian
thought

Birth, growth, decay, death and rebirth are the
fundamental phases of the natural process of light and life. Death
is part of the equation and the precondition of rebirth.

Hermetism

Everything has tides, rise and fall and manifest
a pendulum-swing.

The Osiris-cycle shows how death and judgment are linked. Nobody enters
the Osirian heaven, if what has been said, thought,
intended and willed during life is heavier than the feather of truth. In
the Hall of Maat, the great balance records the differences between truth
and falsehood, between a justified life and one of evil. All 42 nomes have
sent their assessors. There is no place where evil is done unnoticed, for
the eyes of the gods see it all. If and only if the feather of Maat is heavier, and
truth prevailed, will the deceased become fully operational and effective
in the afterlife. If after having done mistakes, nothing is rectified and Pharaoh
has not been served well, then the heart betrays
the soul and the name of the deceased is lost and the parts of man disconnected
and scattered. We know the evil we do and we pay if truth has not been
restored. Nature offers rejuvenation and eternal life, but it also
harbors damnation, extended tortures and utter annihilation.

Although the CH speaks of a "world beyond the grave"
(Libellus XI, 20), the Greek preconceptions of death are clearly present.
An extensive study of this world is absent. The Greeks prefer not to speak
of the afterlife, although mention is made of the fact dissolution
of the body is not death. Dissolution does not lead to destruction, but to
renewal. If the level of the Ogdoad may be reached during life on Earth,
the Ennead is reserved for the afterlife. Also in Egypt the "akh"-state
was reached in the afterlife. However, how this life has to be
envisioned is not mentioned by the Greeks, neither is Osiris, judgment or the
elaborated vision of the afterlife offered by Archaic Greek theology (in
Late Hellenism a moral perspective was added).

6Cause and effect : Horus & Pharaoh.

Statue of Nectanebo II
and Horus
XXXth Dynasty - 360 - 343 BCE

"To say : I am Horus, O Osiris King Neferkare, I will not let You suffer. Go forth, wake
up for me and guard yourself !" Pyramid Texts, § 1753.

"O Osiris King Neferkare, Horus has put his Eye on your brow in its name of
Great-of-Magic."Pyramid Texts, § 1795.

"To say : This is this Eye of Horus which he gave to Osiris ; give it to him that
he may provide his face with it." Pyramid Texts, § 1643.

"For at the time when each
one of us is born and made alive, the daemons who are at that moment on
duty as ministers of birth take charge of us, -that is, the daemons who
are subject to some one planet. For the planets replace one another from
moment to moment ; they do not go on working without change, but succeed
one another in rotation."CH, Libellus
XVI, 15."The Cosmos moves within the very life of eternity, and is contained in
that very eternity whence all life issues. And for this reason it is
impossible that it should at any time come to a stand, or be destroyed,
since it is walled in and bound together, so to speak, by eternal life."Asclepius III,
29c.

In Greek philosophy, theoretical issues were common. The abstract,
linearizing mind always categorizes. In terms of physical reality,
Aristotle introduced four categories of determination or "causes", to wit
: material, formal, efficient and final cause. For Hermetism, the causes
determining our lives are astrological. Planets have natures and these
cause propensities in humans. These lead homo communis astray. Only if the
rational part of a man's soul is illumined by gnosis will the effect of daemons be
annihilated. This is rare, for most are led and driven by daemons, setting
their hearts and passions on their satisfaction and accommodation. The daemons thus govern our
life on Earth using our bodies as instruments. This government is called
"destiny". "Gnosis" liberates us from these causes, but
is difficult to acquire. In terms of salvic efficiency, Antiquity has no
mass psychology, although the Egyptian, Greek and Roman populace is
entertained by regular festivities.
Paulinian Christianity will be the first
universal religion, addressing humanity as a whole. Its success is largely
due to its simplicity and the collective anxiety-relief it gave en
masse, and this irrespective of social class. Indeed, baptism and
faith in the Cross of Christ is called for, and not expensive, cryptic and
elaborated rituals.

In Ancient Egypt, the deities were in charge of reality. The most evident
"cause" of life being a "good Nile". The blessings procured by the "god of
the city" were the result of cultic offerings by the diving king (and
his representatives, who assumed his divinity). Because Pharaoh offered
Maat to Re, health, life & prosperity would endure. Hence, Pharaoh, the
sole god and witness on Earth, is the first cause of happiness. In periods when the
Two Lands are divided, a return to chaos is imminent, for the gods turn
away from Egypt.

Cause and effect are approached in the image of the Eye of Horus. Although
brought back to life by Isis & Thoth, he is weary and inert. His cries are
heard by his son, king Horus, who descends in the Netherworld. Because he brings his Eye of Wellness (the
Wedjatrestored by Thoth), his
father is rejuvenated and enthroned as king of the Duat.
In the Late Period, when Pharaoh became more of an institution than
the direct guarantee of the proper order of things, the will of the gods
and in particular that of the "king of the gods", Amun, became
all-powerful. No longer was Pharaoh on Earth, but in the sky. Amun
Pharaoh is the cause of it all. He decides and manifests his decisions by
oracular means.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Egyptian
thought

Horus-Pharaoh is the
terrestrial cause of life, prosperity &
health. He guarantees a "good Nile" and is the representative of
Re and the
deities on Earth. In the Later Period, fate and destiny cause events
and both rest in the hands of the deities, in particular their king
Amun. It is the Eye of Horus which causes Osiris to complete his
restoration and become king of the dead.

Hermetism

Everything on Earth is caused by the movements of
the planets. Our destiny is fixed and only gnosis, the Light of
God, sets us free. Determinism is inevitable as long as our bodies
are the instruments of the planets, as in most human beings.

Add to this the influence of Chaldaean astrology, and we come full
circle : the Deities decide and delegate their power to the
planets, each being in charge of a portion of fate and destiny. Both rule
life, and nobody knows what the Deities will decide next. Not oracles, but
the astral logic of planetary constellations decides how the commoners
live and die. Most humans are not liberated, but chained to their
constellations. The better predictions are, the less free man is. Those
who have gnosis are no longer subject to their fate, but decide for
themselves.

"Geb has brought your two sisters to your side for You, namely Isis and
Nephthys ..."Pyramid Texts, § 577.
"Your two sisters Isis and Nephthys come to You that they may make You
hale ..."Pyramid Texts, § 628.
"Bring me the milk of Isis, the flood of Nephthys, the overspill of the
lake, the surge of the sea, life, prosperity, health, happiness, bread,
beer, clothing, and food, that I, Pharaoh Teti, may live thereby." Pyramid Texts, § 707.
"To say : Raise yourself, O King ! You have your water, You have your inundation,
You have your milk which is from the breasts of mother Isis." Pyramid Texts, § 734.
"Isis speaks to You, Nephthys calls to You, the spirits come to You bowing
and they kiss the Earth at your feet because of the dread of You, O King,
in the towns of Sia."Pyramid Texts, § 755.
"Isis conceives me, Nephthys begets me, and I sit on the Great Throne
which the gods have made."Pyramid Texts, § 1154.
"'Endure !' says Isis.
'In peace !' says Nephthys, when they see their brother."Pyramid Texts, § 1292.

"To say : I, Pharaoh Wenis, have inundated the land which came forth from the
lake, I have torn out the papyrus-plant, I have satisfied the Two Lands, I
have united the Two Lands, I have joined my mother the Great Wild Cow."Pyramid Texts, § 388.
"Adoration of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands,
Nefer-kheperu-Re, Sole-one-of-Re,
the Son of Re who lives by Maat, Lord of Crowns,
Akhenaten, great in his lifetime
and of the beloved great Queen,
Lady of the Two Lands : Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti,
who lives in health and youth forever !"
Great Hymn to the Aten, introduction.

"O You, who make semen grow in women,
who creates people from sperm,
who feeds the son in his mother's womb,
who soothes him to still his tears.
You nurse in the womb !
Giver of breath to nourish all creatures.
When the child emerges from the womb
to breathe on the day of his birth,
You open wide his mouth to supply his needs."
Great Hymn to the Aten, 33-39."O beauteous one, O cow, O great one,
O great magician, O splendid lady, O gold of gods !
The King reveres You, Pharaoh, give that he live !
O queen of gods, he reveres You, give that he live ! (...)
Behold what is in his inmost,
though his mouth speaks not.
His heart is straight, his inmost open,
no darkness is in his breast !
He reveres You, O queen of gods !
Give that he live !"Hymns to Hathor, III.

"He, filled with all the fecundity of both sexes in
one, and ever teeming with his own goodness, unceasingly brings into all
that he has willed to generate, and all that he wills is good. From his
Divine being has sprung the goodness of all things in this world below,
and hence it is that all things are productive, and that their procreative
power is adequate to ensure that all shall hereafter be as it is now, and
as it has been in the past."Asclepius III, 20b."... the type persists unchanged, but generates at
successive instants copies of itself as numerous and different as are the
moments in the revolutions of the sphere of heaven. For the sphere of
heaven changes as it revolves, but the type neither changes nor revolves.
Thus the generic forms persist unchanged, but the individuals, for all
their sameness of generic form, yet differ one from another."Asclepius III, 35.
"The Earth is ever passing through many changes of form. It generates
produce, it nourishes the product it has generated, it yields all manner
of crops, with manifold differences of quality and quantity, and above
all, it puts forth many sorts of trees, differing in the scent of their
flowers and the taste of their fruits."Asclepius III, 36."The body is a mixture of the elements, that is, of
earth, water, air and fire. And so, since the body of the female has in
its composition an excess of the fluid element and the cold element, and a
deficiency of the dry element and the cold element, the result is that the
soul which is enclosed in a bodily frame of this nature is melting and
voluptuous, just as in males one finds the reverse ..."Stobaeus, Excerpt XXIV,
8 - 9.

If we compare the situation of women in Ancient Egypt
with that of the surrounding cultures, we are struck by the fundamental,
relative
equality between men and women. Because of this,
it has been argued Egypt was in fact a matriarchy, which is not the case.
Sources show monogamy was the rule, with exceptions caused by the high
level of child mortality and usually limited to the royals (as were
marriages between sister and brother).

Although Pharaoh was a male, women assured dynastic change. This may well
go back to Predynastic times, when the "great goddess" (Hathor) ruled
supreme in the affairs of fertility, growth & family. The rise of divine
kingship implied the assimilation by Pharaoh of the power of
the
great fertility goddess, a fact found in the myths associated
with the "Two Ladies", a title found in the royal titulary and referring
to the two goddesses on the brow of the "nemes" worn by the king, adorned
by a vulture (Nekhbet) and a cobra (Wadjet), associated with Upper and
Lower Egypt respectively. These protective deities, Wadjet in particular,
were connected with Atum, who's enraged eye was transformed into this
fire-spitting royal
cobra. Pharaoh
Akhenaten went a step further, and allowed his wife to become
the third person in his monotheist Atenite trinity : Aten, Akhenaten &
Nefertiti.

GENDER

Egyptian
thought

Except for the bisexual Atum, all gods have their
consort. Male and female are the two sides of the balance. Every day
the male Pharaoh offers Maat, truth and justice, the daughter of Re
and consort of Thoth. Because of this, creation endures.

Hermetism

Male and female are a mixture of the elements out
of which all physical phenomena are composed. Air and Fire are
masculine, Water and Earth feminine.

Among the deities, goddesses enjoyed an identical status. Not
only do all
gods have consorts, except Atum, an autogenous bisexual, who masturbates
to create the world, but the protective role of the goddesses springs to
the fore in
the Osiris-cycle. In the Duat, Osiris is assisted by Isis and Nephthys,
but before his enthronement, Osiris would never have been resurrected by
Horus without Isis (his wife & sister). Next to her all-important role,
Hathor also remained a major goddess from the Predynastic Period until the
end of the Pharaonic Period, and many others may be identified (Nut, Maat,
Mut, Neith, Sekhmet, Satet, Sechat, to name the most popular). Pharaoh, a mighty bull, assimilates the female
powers and by doing so excels in masculinity : he is Horus and the only
son of Re alive on Earth.

Although the majority of Egyptian art and texts are foremost
male-dominated activities and male images and concerns are far more
prominent, women are more represented in the documentation in later times
than they are in the Old Kingdom. Their sacerdotal role was enduring and
powerful, and of an exceptional status in the whole of Antiquity.

"For Pharaoh is the great power that overpowers the powers.
Pharaoh is a sacred image,
the most sacred image
of the sacred images of the Great One.
Whom he finds in his way,
him he devours bit by bit.

Pharaoh's place is at the head
of all the noble ones
who are in the horizon.
For Pharaoh is a god, older than the oldest.
Thousands revolve around him, hundreds offer to him.
There is given to him a warrant as a great power by
Orion,
the father of the gods."Pyramid Texts, § 406 - 407.

"This Earthly tent, my son, out of which we have
passed forth, has been put together by the working of the Zodiac, which
produces manifold forms of one and the same thing to lead men astray ; and
as the Signs of which the Zodiac consists are twelve in number, the forms
produced by it, my son, fall into twelve divisions."CH, Libellus
XIII, 12."And the first Mind, that Mind which is Life and
Light, being bisexual, gave birth to another Mind, a Maker of Things. And
this second Mind made out of fire and air seven Administrators, who
encompass with their orbits the world perceived by sense, and their
administration is called Destiny."CH, Libellus I, 9."The seven spheres, as
they are called, have as their Ruler the Deity called Fortune or Destiny,
who changes all things according to the law of natural growth, working
with a fixity which is immutable, and which yet is varied by everlasting
movement."CH, Asclepius, III, 19b.
"... the Sun receives from God, through the intelligible Cosmos, the
influx of good (that is, of life-giving energy), with which he is
supplied."CH, Libellus XVI, 17.
"If You wish to see Him, think on the Sun, think on the course of the
Moon, think on the order of the stars. Who is it that maintains that order
?"CH, Libellus V, 3.
"... You see, my son, through how many bodily things in succession we have
to make our way, and through how many troops of daemons and courses of
stars, that we may press on to the one and only God."CH, Libellus IV, 8b.

"And thereupon, having been stripped of all that was wrought upon
him by the structure of the heavens, he ascends to the substance of the
eighth sphere, being now possessed of his own proper power, and he sings,
together with those who dwell there, hymning the Father, and they that are
there rejoice with him at his
coming. (...) they (the men ascending to this sphere) give themselves up
to the Powers, and becoming Powers themselves, they enter into God. This
is the Good. This is consummation for those who have got gnosis."CH, Libellus I, 26a.

In the aftermath
of Alexander's conquest, Greeks had settled in Persia and their migration
to Egypt brought Chaldaean stellar science (astronomy plus astrology) to
Alexandria (and from there to Rome). In Egypt, oracular practices were
already very common. Since the end of the New Kingdom (ca. 1075 BCE),
these ways had gained importance, in particular the oracular rule of Amun
and his priests. Add astrology, and the will of the gods can be inferred
by predicting and understanding celestial events. This astral religion had
two sides : a technical one involving measurement (astronomy) and an
"oracular", "prophetic" one dealing with inter-subjective meaning
attributed to all kinds of astral cycles (astrology).

The notion astronomical phenomena are relevant symbols was not
new to the Egyptians. The linking of the Nile flood with the rising of
Sirius, the Sothic year, the Lunar tides, the Heliacal decans, the hours,
the calendars and the integral relationship in Late Egyptian religion
between the stars and the gods mentioned by Plutarch (On Isis and
Osiris), manifest the stellar practices of the priesthood. Already in
the Old Kingdom, stellar phenomena were an integral part of the funerary
ideology of Pharaoh (cf. the orientation and shafts of the Great Pyramid
and other monuments). Decans adorn IXth & Xth Dynasty (cf. 2160 - 1980
BCE) sarcophagi, which shows the Antiquity of this astronomical division
based on myth, ritual and religion. With the decline of the institution of
divine kingship in the Late Ramesside Period, the rule of the deities
became supreme, both in the sky as on Earth. Amun was "king of the gods",
but also Pharaoh. He ruled Egypt by means of oracles ...

The projection of meaning on the movements of the seven planets (or
deities : Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), allowing for
predictions in individual royal affairs (like birth & death), was foreign
to Egyptian astrology. In his Commentary on the Timaeus (Diehl -
3.151), Proclus (412 - 485 CE) wrote that Theophrastus (ca. 372 - 280 BCE) had
said his Chaldaean contemporaries had a theory predicting every event in
the life and death of an individual human being, rather than just general,
collective effects, such as good or bad weather. In ca. 280 BCE,
Berossus, priest of Marduk, presented to king Antiochus I his
Babylonaika, or treatise on Chaldaean astral doctrine. The earliest
individual horoscope dates from 410 BCE, whereas a cuneiform tablet dated
523 BCE indicates the ability to calculate monthly ephemerides for the Sun
and Moon, the conjunctions of the planets and of the planets with each
other, as well as eclipses. The Babylonian idea making individuals subject to
stellar conditions (genethialogical astrology) was un-Egyptian, although
the power of fate was acknowledged.

Egyptian priests studied Chaldaean astrology and under the Ptolemies the
discipline flourished. Astrology was attributed to Hermes and identified with
the planet Mercury. It became an integral part of Hermetism, and acted as
the cement between popular magic and the learned Hermetica, between
"practice" and "knowledge" and involved proper timing. In the Ptolemaic
empire, astrology became prominent and fused with the existing fatalistic
tendencies to become a stellar fatalism. This same happened on a larger
scale, for Late Hellenism was a period of great insecurity and doubt. That
the misfortunes of fate could be predicted was too good to be true. All
depends on the will of the Gods, but can their will be read in the sky ?
Moreover, the planets were conceived as the physical manifestations of the
Pantheon ruling the affairs of Earth. Not only prediction, but praise &
prayer could be offered to change the course of events (magic). These
beliefs, belonging to the technical Hermetica, made astrology so popular
in the Hellenistic age, prone to feelings of alienation and the pressing
impact of the Deities fate and fortune ... the Egyptian deities Shay and
Renenet.

Traditional astrology got recorded by Claude Ptolemy (born towards the end
of the first century CE) in his Tetrabiblos & the Centiloquim.
In Demotic papyri of the Roman period, we find versions of texts going
back to the mid-second century BCE. They concern kings of Egypt and wars
with Syria and Parthia. The earliest papyrus horoscope concerns a birth in
10 BCE, while the first horoscope preserved in a literary texts deals with
a birth in 72 BCE. The most interesting Ptolemaic monumental piece called
the "Zodiac of Dendera", recording the event of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos
Auletes founding a new Hathor temple at Dendera (the 16th of July 54 BCE).
In fact, it is the world's first monumental founding horoscope or
"election horoscope", erected for the 25th of September 52 BCE (at the
time of a unique Lunar eclipse).
A plaster copy of it can be seen in the Hathor Temple, the original having been removed by Sebastien Saulnier in
1820 to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and now in the Museum of the
Louvre (D38).

The Hellenistic astrologers saw themselves as men of religion, priests of
an astral faith, using a sacred cult to rise above the seven planets
(Hebdomad) ruling fate and -reassured of the Divine nature of our mind-
to resist and curtail the power of these "archons" of the created world. The
traditional Greek "evasion" from the cave was "mechanized" in a series of
astral initiations (Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Sun) associated with the voces magicae and the harmony of the
spheres. The need to "escape" this world is clearly an un-Egyptian element in the Hermetic
equation (cf.
Discourse of a Man with his Ba).

In Egypt,
Shay was the personification of destiny and god of life-span,
fate & fortune, who, in the Ptolemaic Period, was identified with
"Agatho Daimon", the Hellenistic fortune-telling serpent Deity.
In the Old Kingdom, "Renenutet" ("rnnwtt") was a goddess of the
harvest and a divine nurse ("rnnt"), but also a guardian of the king
identified with the royal uraeus and Pharaoh's "robe". In the New Kingdom
Litany of Re, this goddess appears in the underworld as the "Lady of
Justification", and in the Late Period, she decides many of the events in
an individual's life.

In native Egyptian religion, the "Ogdoad" is a company of eighth
precreational deities, at the head of which stands Thoth. These fashion
the primordial egg out of which creation hatches by the word of Thoth.

In Hermetism,
the "Hebdomad", the fate-driven part of nature, is below the
"Ogdoad", just as "7" is smaller than "8". Indeed, there are no
inner semantics between the Egyptian and the Hermetic use of the words
"ogdoad" and "ennead".

For Hermes, the Ogdoad is the realm of illumination, associated with the fixed stars, the Deities and the blessed souls (the
gnostics). It can be reached while in the physical body. This sphere is the
presence of Hermes as human teacher or "logos", the
"holy word" coming forth from the Light of the
Divine Nous. Because of this, the Ogdoad and the Ennead are intimately
connected. For the Word brings the Light and this Light is Hermes as the
Mind of God. And he who sees the Mind of God becomes the Mind of God, but
not in this life ...

In Egypt, the deities and the fixed stars were the "akhu" or "spirits" of
Atum-Re, the supreme creator-god. Pharaoh ascended to this sky through the
Northern shaft or through the entrance to his tomb. This light of these
circumpolar stars was deemed to be the house of these spirits. In the Old
Kingdom, this type of transformation was Pharaoh's afterlife privilege and
involved his sublime attainment of the "power of powers", being more
powerful than the gods.

"To say : Atum is he who (once) came into being, who masturbated in
Heliopolis. He took his phallus in his grasp that he might create orgasm
by means of it, and so were born the twins Shu and Tefnut."Pyramid Texts, § 1248.

"There is nothing more Divine than mind, nothing more potent in its
operation, nothing more apt to unite men to Gods, and Gods to men."CH, Libellus
X, 23.
"If then You do not make yourself equal to God, You cannot
apprehend God ; for like is known by like. Leap clear of all that is
corporeal, and make yourself grow to a like expanse with that greatness
which is beyond all measure ; rise above all time, and become eternal ;
then You will apprehend God."CH, Libellus XI, 20b."... some men are Divine, and the humanity of such
men is near to Deity, for the Agathos Daimon said : 'Gods are immortal
men, and men are mortal God'."CH, Libellus
XII, 1."I am not now the man I was. I have been born
again in Mind, and the bodily shape which was mine before has been put
away from me. I am no longer an object colored and tangible, a thing of
spatial dimensions. I am now alien to all this, and to all that You
perceive when You gaze with bodily eyesight. To such eyes as yours, my
son, I am not now visible. - Tat. Father, You have driven me to
raving madness ..."CH, Libellus XIII, 4.
"Father, now that I see in mind, I see myself to be the All. I am in
heaven and in Earth, in water and in air, I am in beasts and plants, I am
a babe in the womb, and one that is not yet conceived, and one that has
been born. I am present everywhere ... - Hermes. Now, my son, You know
what the Rebirth is."CH, Libellus XIII, 13.
"The physical body, which is an object of sense, differs widely from that
other body, which is of the nature of true Being. The one is dissoluble,
the other is indissoluble. The one is mortal, the other is immortal."CH, Libellus XIII, 14.

Sources :Pyramid Texts, ca. 2348 to
2205 BCE, Asclepius, ca. 270 CE.

The Heliopolitan Ennead is an order of creation in
three generations of deities presided by
Atum (the Egyptian creator-god). The Ennead of Hermetism is the Light of Nous, the order of
God's Mind. Both Atum and Hermes are autogenous. The structure of the
Ennead of Atum is the structure of creation, for the deities are
natural differentials. The Mind of God is an architecture of perfect ideas
(Plato). These are crude parallels. In salvic terms, the differences
between Greek and Egyptian ways are considerable.

In the salvic scheme of Hermetism, the stern Greek component is outstanding : one has to rise above
Hebdomadic nature to
find Ogdoadic peace and Enneadic Deification, master the body to escape fate,
but die to be Deified. These
differences also undermine any attempt to identify Greek mysteries (and
initiation) with their Egyptian counterparts. Spiritually, Greek
philosophy and religion is escapists and neglectful of the (idealized) body, and the Greek mysteries
constantly reject the
physical body to give weight to the mind and the spirit. The body is deemed corrupt and
passionate, the mind serene and contemplative. The body is the "prison" of
the soul, the "tent" or "tabernacle". The material
world of becoming is a fleeting shadow, a pale reflection of the world of
ideas (Plato). Only contemplative life fulfills human existence
(Aristotle). The body is the prison or tomb of the soul, the cosmos its
cave or cavern (Plotinus).

In Egypt, an Oriental mindset prevailed : the ritualized body (or mummy) is a
gateway for the deceased to remain in contact with the living. Although
the spirits ("akhu") remain "in the sky", their mediating factors (double
& soul) may dwell on Earth and animate our lives here. Our ancestors move
to and fro, for they have a ritual reference (the mummy) and a "false
door". A whole spiritual economy was set in place to ritualize and
standardize these constant interactions between the "dead" and the living.
Egyptians wrote letters to the dead and got dreams from them. The
dead were as alive as the living, although their ways were subtle,
invisible and magical. In this context, the initiate did not die to be
reborn, but he gazed upon Osiris to be rejuvenated as he had been. The dead were not lost spectres or fleeting images in the Hades
with a few elect in the Empyreum. Every deceased who could pay for the
rituals was an "Osiris NN" who could hope for final justification and
spiritualization.

Already by the end of the Dark Age, the Greek cultural form
had persistent "Aryan", Indo-European characteristics of its own.
These help explain the stern and gloomy interpretation of death in Greek
civilization.

undogmatic
religion : the Archaic Greeks had no sacred books and hence no
dogmatic orthodoxy ;

cultural affirmation : the
Archaic Greeks were a young people who needed to affirm their
identity, they were spontaneous & cheerful ;

cultural
approbation & improvement : the
Archaic Greeks accepted to be taught and were eager to learn, driven by a
Divine discontent.

According to Homeric belief, when somebody died, his or
her vital breath or "psyche" left the body to enter the Hades. This dark
and gloomy place was ruled by the king of the dead, the Roman Pluto. Once
it had fled the body, the psyche merely existed as a phantom image, at
time perceptible but always untouchable. The wall separating the living
from the dead was deemed impenetrable. Crossing the river of death (Styxs)
caused one to forget everything. A concept of punishments for the
wicked and rewards for the virtuous did not, at first, play a dominant role.
This typical Indo-European sense of separation,
rupture, cleavage, schism etc. between life and death will remain a
dominant feature and return in literature, philosophy, drama and science. It was
absent in Egyptian religion (although skeptic voices also left
their traces). Egypt rooted its spirituality in recurrent cycles, not in
ongoing linear growth.

On the one hand, Egyptian religion was
not individualistic, but the major concern of the Pharaonic State. On the other hand,
wisdom discourses and
induction rituals are intimate and personal.
Hermetism combines the two : the temple becomes the lodge and its
"workings" (knowledge and practice) involve highly individual initiations
(comparable in Egypt with the conjectured "seeing of Osiris" - cf.
Osireon). But these Hermetic initiations are
un-Egyptian, and stress the individual escape from the Hebdomad to reach the Ogdoad.
Greek unworldliness and demonisation of matter mixed with Christianity,
influenced the Jewish Qabalah and reemerged in Hermeticism. With
modern science, the naturalistic mindset
returned and the superstitions and myths of "past ages" were boldly left
behind to raise to power the myth of no myth.

"Opened are the double doors of
the horizon, drawn back are its bolts." Pyramid Texts, § 194.

"Secret of
manifestations and sparkling of shape.
Marvellous God, rich in forms.
All gods boast of Him,
to magnify themselves in His beauty,
to the extent of His Divinity."
Hymns to Amun, 200

"He is this Ptah who proclaims by the great
name : Tenen. He who united this land of the South as King of Upper Egypt
and this land of the Delta as King of Lower Egypt. He indeed begat Atum
who gave birth to the Ennead."
Shabaka Stone, lines 3 - 6.
"One is Amun,
who keeps himself concealed from them,
who hides himself from the gods,
no one knowing his nature.
He is more remote than the sky,
He is deeper than the netherworld.

None of the gods knows his true form.
His image is not unfolded in the papyrus rolls.
Nothing certain is testified about him.

He is too secretive
for his Majesty to be revealed.
He is too great to be enquired after,
too powerful to be known."
Hymns to Amun, 200.

"Such is He who is too great to be named God.
He is hidden, yet most manifest. He is apprehensible by thought alone, yet
we can see Him with our eyes. He is bodiless, and yet has many bodies, or
rather, is embodied in all bodies. There is nothing that He is not, for
all things that exist are even He. For this reason all names are names of
Him, because all things come from Him, their one Father, and for this
reason He has no name, because He is the Father of all."CH, Libellus
V, 10a."... the Decad, my son, is the number
by which soul is generated. Life and light united are a Unit ; and the
number One is the source of the Decad. It is reasonable then that the
Unity contains in itself the Decad."CH, Libellus
XIII, 12."God is everlasting, God is eternal. That he should
come into being, or should ever have come into being, is impossible. He
is, he was, he will be for ever. Such is God's being : He is wholly
self-generated."Asclepius II, 14.
"And I see the eighth and the souls that are in it
and the angels singing a hymn to the ninth and its powers. And I see Him
who has power of them all, creating those (that are) in the spirit. It is
advantageous from (now on) that we keep silence in a reverent posture. Do
not speak about the vision from now on. It is proper to (sing a hymn) to
the Father until the day to quit (the) body."The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, 59 - 60 (Robinson).

Both native Egyptian religion and
Hermetism embrace
henotheism (One in all Divine Beings &
all Divine Beings as One). The former in an ante-rational way, the latter
with full support of Greek conceptual rationality (in both its idealistic
and realistic variants).

The essence of God is hidden and nameless. The
existence of God is visible everywhere, although only known by thought.
Everything is a manifestation of the Divine Mind. The Decad cannot be
experienced. Even the Ennead is best for after this life. The Ogdoad is a
secret gnosis available to initiates of Hermes only. All other
humans are driven by astral determinism. This highly elitist way reflects
the exclusivist tendencies of Greek initiation, imagining a symbolical
death before rebirth, a rejection of the gross, evil body before the
illumination by the Light of the Nous. In general, the soteriology of
Antiquity is elitist, exclusivist, naturalist (no order of grace) and an
upper classes phenomenon. In the afterlife, slaves surely perished and the
poor benefitted from the goodness of Amun.

Officially, only Pharaoh was able to offer to the deities, for gods only
communicate with other gods, and the divine king was the son of Re and an
incarnation of Horus. When entering the "naos" or "holy of holies"
("kAs") and
performing adjacent rituals, the "hem netjer" or "servant of the god", who
was not a god but who represented the king (in a large temple this would
be the high priest), assumed the form or image ("iri") of the divine king
(and his titulary deities). The king is the "10th" added to the Ennead of
Atum, for as Horus, he is the justified successor of his father. In
Pharaoh, the "mystery" of divine incarnation abided, for he was the only
deity incarnated in a human body. In this way, he prefigured Hermes and
Christ.

Amun, the "king of the gods" is "one, hidden and millions". In the Old
Kingdom, the great unknown god is invoked. Behind all deities, a hidden,
primordial and ultimate nameless great deity is imagined. At first, this
supreme deity is situated before all possible nature, for preexistent. He
belongs to the precreational realm. In the New Kingdom, Amun is also
present in every possible manifestation, he is before nature and in every
nature.

EpilogueAncient Egyptian Mysteries ?

"ankh" the Egyptian sign for
life
possessed by every deity

Egyptian religion is a celebration
of life. This love of life is so pronounced, that even death is but
another way of living. Indeed, the origin of life is deemed precreational,
for with Atum rising out of
Nun,
the "first occurrence" ("zep tepi") begins, which is the start of
space, life (Shu), truth, order (Tefnut) and light (Re). Religion, ritual, induction and
initiation always involve a return to this primordial time of maximum
efficient power, in essence limitless, eternal and everlasting. This
golden time of the gods, the true fount of life, is present in our world
as "the horizon" ("Axt" or "akhet") or the junction of Earth and sky.
Moreover, the horizon is where the spirit-state is attained, an
interstitial area where the "mystery" of transformation occurs, allowing
the divine king (in this life and in the next) to rise to the Imperishable Stars of the Northern sky, and
the ordinary deceased to attain the spirit-state.

"May You (Atum-Re and Pharaoh)
rise from the Akhet,
from the place through which You become Akh."Pyramid Texts, § 152.

There is no irreversible
separation or wall between the dead and the living. If the living take
care for the tombs of the dead, the latter will be able to return to the
physical plane to interact with those living there. The living do not
communicate with the essence of the deceased, for the spirits (the "akhu")
exist in the bliss of their celestial, starry light. They are free and
effective and so able to interact with Earth by means of the "ba" and the
"ka", their operational aspects. Spirit-life being the highest form of
life, the attainment of this "akh-state" was the crucial postmortem
event (the form allowing the deceased to live effectively in the
afterlife). At first only Pharaoh could attain it, but eventually every
justified deceased had a soul and so could hope to become a noble dead,
although the unjustified would never enter the Field of Reeds and other
heavenly abodes. They would be annihilated (not reincarnated).

On Earth, only Pharaoh was a living spirit, a mortal god. When his body
died, the divine spirit would rise up, move through the underworld and
ascend to heaven. Arrived there, he would make sure the new Horus-Pharaoh
would be given a "good Nile", underlining his justification. The tomb had
a two-way function : via the North (or the West), the deceased king would
ascend and his "ba" and "ka" would descend. Likewise, the temple was
gateway to and fro heaven. Egypt as the "image of the sky" is literal :
each of the hundreds of temples was a stargate.

Recently, Naydler (2005), by suspending the
funerary interpretation, made clear that the Pyramid Texts in
general and the Unas texts in particular, reveal an experiential
dimension, and so also represent this-life initiatic experiences
consciously sought by the divine king (cf.
Egyptian initiation). These may be
classified in two categories : Osirian rejuvenation (cf. the texts of the
burial-chamber), already at work in the Sed festival, and Heliopolitan
ascension (cf. the texts in the antechamber). To this may be added, that
in the New Kingdom, both Lunar and Solar spiritual economies were refined
; the way of Osiris in the Osireon and the Netherworld Books (cf.
Amduat), and the way of Re in the New Solar Theology of both
Atenism and Amenism. Both the Amduat (cf. the
6th Hour) and the Pyramid Texts testify that the core of the
Osirian Ceremony involved rejuvenation (found in the pit of darkness).

The Egyptian "mysteries" are the inner secrets of this religion, divided
in mortuary temples, henceforward called temples for the royal cult, and cult temples, or the "horizon" of a divine being
(the expression "double doors of the horizon" refers to the two doors of
the shrine of the cult statue, kept hidden in the sanctum sanctorum).
The former were intended to rejuvenate the living Horus-king (by
identifying with Osiris) and, after death, to sustain the link with the deified deceased,
the latter involved the service of a divine being at work in "its domain".
Examples are the elaborated Morning Rituals, taking place at dawn in the
sanctuary of every temple, in and around the "naos", and the famous
"Opening of the Mouth". Although most of the fine details of these rituals
are lost, the records do keep some of the highlights "frozen" in stone or
on papyrus and thanks to the Egyptian
love of words, a large number of spells and texts inform us
about what was said and done (cf. Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts,
Book of the Dead, Amduat, Book of Gates). In tune with Egyptian visual thought, these
icons provide further information and suggest many parallels, embedded in
the hieroglyphic script (as the following determinatives make clear). The
historical reconstruction hence offers a basic ritual matrix.

Ritual Postures

Semantics

A7 -
"wrd" - tire, exhaustion

non-activity, inertia, funerary rituals and lamentations

A16
- "ksi" - bow down

honoring the deities and the divine king and rites of submission and
respect

A59
- "sHr" - drive away, execrate

ritual banishments, execrations

A6 -
"wab" - pure, clean

preparing for ritual, purifications

A4 -
"dwA" - supplicate, adore

paying homage (praise) and acts of supplication

A8 -
"hnw" - jubilation

commemoration of the victory of Horus over Seth, the Henu Rite

A26
- "nis" - summon, call, invoke

formal invocation of the deities and the noble dead

A32
- "xbi" - dance, jubilate

expressions of joy and happiness in the presence of the divine

A30
- "dwA" - praise, supplicate, adore

reciting hymns and giving praise to the deities and Pharaoh

A28
- "Hai" - high, joy, rejoice, laud

highest expression of celebration and spiritual joy

Let us summarize the historical
and methodological situation of the Egyptian tradition.
Historically, distinguish between four theo-ontological models of
the Divine :

Semitic
model:God is One and Alone. He,
the sole, singular God, is an
unknown and unknowable Divine Person, Who Wills good and evil alike (cf.
Judaism &
Islam) ;

Greek
model:God is a Principle of
principles, the best of the best (Plato), the unmoved mover (Aristotle),
the One even ecstasy does not reveal, impersonal and in no way evil or
tainted by
absence or privation of being (Plotinus), the First Intellect (Ibn
Sina), a "God of the philosophers" (Whitehead). This abstract God
figures in intellectual theologies, humanism & atheism. In the latter,
by the "alpha privativum" of the Divine, as in a-theism,
an absolute term is produced, but this time by negation instead of by
affirmation. God is reduced to an abstract & absolute "no-absolute".
But for the Greek populace, the deities are anthropomorphic and display
a variety of human passions and interests ;

Christian
model :God is One essence in Three Persons
: God the Father revealed by God's incarnated Son, Jesus Christ,
because, in and with God the Deifying
Holy
Spirit (either only from the Father, as in the
Orthodox East, or from both Father and
Son, as in the West). A God of Love, never impersonal, always without evil (pure of
heart) and sole cause of goodness
(Christianity) ;

Oriental
model:God, The All, is One sheer
Being present in every part of creation in terms of a manifold of impersonal
& personal Divine Self-manifestations (theophanies or modes of the
One), as we see in
Ancient Egypt,
Alexandrian
Hermetism,
Hinduism
(Vedanta), Jainism,
Buddhism, Taoism and Hermeticism.

Egyptian religion belongs to the Oriental group of
religions. The Divine is not unknowable and not exclusively personal. God
is hidden and unveiled, one and many. More than just an abstract principle, God may
become a Person, but no theophany is ruled out, and so God may also
manifest as a real (like Anubis) or fabulous animal (like Seth), an
artifact (like the crowns), a concept (like Maat, Sia, Hu etc) or a
deified human (like Imhotep). Many Deities are at work as parts of nature, and each is a
Perfect Manifestation, Appearance, Aspect or Attribute of the same God, who is The All but also hidden in
all, as Graeco-Egyptian Hermetism affirms.

Most Greeks worshipped anthropomorphic deities, and more than one Greek
intellectual (living outside Egypt and misunderstanding the deeper purpose
of the association) ridiculed Egypt's animal-faced deities. Greek Gods
were like immortal humans, the Egyptian deities represented archetypal natural
differentials. Egyptian
Orientalism and the Greek mentality had overlapping verbal & linguistic
interests (cf. the study of literature in Alexandria), but different iconic
sensitivities and logical tastes. The Greeks idealized the body and
rejected death, the Egyptians understood the body as an expression of the
spirit and embraced death as a portal to more life.
Pre-Socratic Greece also sought the root and the law of the universe
(cf. Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras) and had found its first answers in Lower Egypt (Neukratis
and Memphis).

Regarding method this. Before contemporary Egyptology could do its work
and articulate a historical reconstruction based on the available evidence
and its scientific interpretations, Ancient Egypt was
the object of three major flawed reconstructions :

the
Hellenistic reconstruction :
Ancient Egyptian religion, after having influenced the Greeks, was eventually Hellenized. The cults of Osiris and
Isis, as well as Hermetism, evidence the survival of
Hellenized forms of the native Egyptian ways. But the Greeks
intermixed their somber, linear and isolationist views of the hereafter with the extended
Egyptian funerary rituals. The ecstatic "catharsis", "away from the body" mystique
of their mysteries was escapist and directly influenced Judaism
(Qabalah), Christianity (unworldliness) and Islam (the best is given
after death). The role of Anubis as "guide of the dead" and initiator
and Osiris as "king of the dead" was reinterpreted in terms of the
Greek religious attitude. The Egyptian mysteries were seen as leading
to another, better plane of existence, away from the limitations and
boundaries of the material plane. The Greeks longed for a
contemplative life, devoid of material duties and suffering. Theory
was more appreciated than practice. Hence, material life on Earth,
which fed the passions, had to be bridled and finally transcended. In
this perspective, death heralded the final disconnection with the
body, a state the Egyptians tried to avoid at all costs. Their
religious attitude was un-Greek and in no way theoretical or
abstract. In Egyptian religion, material life was spiritualized to
make it eternal. Death was rebirth in the afterlife. And "voluntary
death" was a spiritual dismemberment to a spiritualization of
consciousness here and now.
In the Graeco-Roman mind, nobody returned to Earth, the escape was
final. Death brought rupture and disconnection, no return. When, for literary
reasons or to close a play with a "Deus ex machina", a spectre
of the dead or a Deity appeared, then surely only vaguely and mostly
to announce something bad or worse. This stern and lifeless
vision of death (which befell all except the Deities) is already at
work in Homer, who's poetry suggests Mycenæan roots (cf. the Mycenæan
Age, ca. 1600 - 1100 BCE). The "morbid", funerary interpretation of the Egyptian
tradition is therefore largely Hellenocentric. It denies Ancient
Egyptian religion its mystics and ecstatics.

the
Scriptural reconstruction :
the so-called "religions of the book" (Judaism, Christianity & Islam), introduced their own narrow
angle : Egypt as the home of taskmasters, idols & polytheists. In
their "revealed" scriptures, these religions condemned Egyptian
religion, although none of their protagonists were able to read
Egyptian (Moses is not of history but of memory) and misunderstood
when they tried. When Egypt turned
Christian, the old religious structures were destroyed and most
Egyptian deities transformed into demons (cf. "Amun" in Medieval
Goetia and Solomonic magic). The cult of Isis became the worship of
Mary, and the resurrection of Osiris was transformed into the
spirituality of the cosmic Christ, represented on Earth by the Pope
(the Christian Pharaoh and Emperor). The old trinitarian concepts of Deity
developed in Egypt, became the "Holy Trinity" ... It is remarkable to
see how the canonized versions of these so-called "revealed"
scriptures were written decades after their founders had died (Moses,
Jesus and Mohammed wrote nothing). Moreover, although these traditions
rejected the Egyptian view of the world, they nevertheless continued
to cherish Egypt as the home of perennial wisdom, science, magic and
mysteries, albeit allegorical and Pagan. These revelations were also
Hellenized (Judaism with the Septuagint, Christianity because
of the Greek authors of the gospel of Christ, who himself spoke
Aramaic, and Islam with the impact of the Greek "falsafa" on theology
and jurisprudence, as well as Hermes of Harran on Sufism).

the
Renaissancist reconstruction : when the Renaissance started in Italy, and the work of the Arab
translators began to influence intellectual life in Europe, the
allegorical interpretation of hieroglyphs (initiated by the Egyptian
priests of the Late Hellenistic Period), brought on stage a fictional approach
of the Egyptian heritage. This would continue to operate
despite Champollion cracking the code (in 1824) and demonstrating how the
hieroglyphic signs were not allegorical but primarily phonetical. Between the
XIIIth century (the end of the influential Templar movement with its
"magical" tenets, the invention of the new Jewish Qabalah by Moses ben
de Leon - cf. the Sepher Zohar and the influential Solomonic
magic) and the XVIIth century (the start of Hermeticism,
Freemasonry and the Rosicrucian movements) the allegorical
interpretation of Ancient Egypt initiated egyptomania, a fictional
approach of things Egyptian, devoid of any appreciation of the basic
ritual matrix (cf. the historical reconstruction). For example, Seleem
(2004, p.10) gives 50.509 BCE for the so-called emigration of the
"priesthood of Atlantis" to Egypt !

Although all contemporary
thematical reconstructions of the Egyptian mysteries, based on modern
Egyptology, make use of rational thought, we have to avoid introducing
Hellenistic bias, in particular with regard to the neglect of the body and
the physical plane of existence. In tune with nature, the Egyptians are
interested in recurrent cycles, not in linear expansion. To witness the
ongoing rejuvenation of creation being the heart of Pharaoh and his
intent. To know nature is to understand the intricate delicacy of its
movements and to organize life in tune with it. No radical change is
envisioned, for natural process has its own natural timing. Catastrophe
and inventive changes are periods of stress and disruption. The Egyptians
must have hated these loud Greeks with their reckless, inquisitive and
ever-expanding spirits and at time violent and perverse morals.

(a very old Egyptian priest exclaims :)"Solon ! Solon ! You Greeks are always children !
An old Greek does not exist !"Plato, Timaeus, 22, my italics.

The revealed religions added a vile theological component to the Greek
neglect of death (and the idealization of the physical form of the body) :
sin. To reach God, the body and its appetites had to be mortified, for
they were deemed the source of sin and stood between man and his
salvation. Not only is the body a prison, it is also a wild beast and the
natural ally of Shaitan, Satan or Iblis (the Seth of Egypt ?). Clearly, those who adhere to such
exoteric ideas cannot comprehend Egyptian spirituality and its enjoyment of all
parts of the body, now and in the afterlife. They are unable to address
darkness and evil with serene minds and remain unfit to wander in the
abysses of nature. The Oriental view on evil may be in tune with the
Semitic mind (for both understand evil as God's will), but both differ on
how to deal with it. The revealed religions exclude Satan from man's
salvation, while in Egypt, Seth was subject to worship.

Because contemporary Egyptology provides a historical reconstruction based
on the evidence, it is not called to speculate. This is not its task, for
it works with and for a scientific knowledge base of the available
evidence, an intersubjective consensus based on the facts. We may ask it
to organize its objects of study in function of the main themes covered by
the Ancient Egyptians themselves, and in this religion plays a prominent
role. Maybe such a systematic and generalizing approach is still lacking.
Insofar a series of hangovers are eliminated (antiquarian mentality,
geosentimentalism, Europacentrism, Hellenocentrism, Afrocentrism, etc.),
Egyptology is the best ally of the philosopher of religion as well as the
esotericist and the Kemetist.

Let us first consider the case of the philosopher. Mysticology, the study
of the knowledge-manipulation of mystics (cf. my
Kennis en Minne-Mystiek, 1994), describes
the process underpinning spiritual growth, as three-tiered :
purification, totalization, actionalization and recognized that these
stages gave rise to alternative canonized superstructures by the many
religions of humanity, while the experiential register is fundamental.

These phases are first put into evidenced by the cave-art of the Upper
Paleolithic and its religious implications.

These three stages are :

"the entry"
: the tunnel :
the process of differentiation from light to darkness ;

"the sanctum"
: the
cathedral : the secluded place of the mystery of the hidden light
;

"the exit"
:the return : the process of integration from darkness to light.

Before reaching the gigantic underground
rock cathedral within the holy mound, the Cro-Magnon, or Homo sapiens sapiens
(from 100.000 till ca. 10.000 BCE), crawls a considerable distance through a twisting, narrrowing, pitch black tunnel underneath tones of
solid rock. The heart of the mountain is one or several caves lit with
fires, with a variety of known, unknown and
phantastic animals painted on high walls and maybe animated by
the resounding echoes of the fierce rhythms of beated stalactites ... Are
strange
men running around in unseen outfits, shouting, dancing or otherwise
occupied ? The Dancing Sorcerer of Trois Frères perhaps, directing, in
this grand natural galleries within the sacred mound, the secret dance of
the powers that be, i.e. the supernatural spirits of the ancestors
and the deities. Why do these Palaeolithic ritualists seek the same
darkness of deep, dreamless sleep and death as the stage for their
activities ?

The underlying purpose of this drama of darkness is religious and magical. The former reconnects
the archaic, mythical layer of consciousness, predominant in Upper
Palaeolithic and Neolithic humanity, with
the primordial, archetypal powers or differentials of nature, the types
representing the "nature" of the natural order. The latter
protects
against the dark, dangerous side of the natural order, and aims at
its successful manipulation by means of this "nature of natures".
Prehistoric consciousness projects this outwards, and
perceives it as the living, animated existence of ceaseless repetitions
and constant types. The latter are only "typical coordinations" within its
psychomorphy perceptions of the natural environment, particularly the
"psychophysics" of water (food) and light (darkness). Over time, mythical
notions of these psychomorph experiences take form. These eventually
become natural "stereotypes", the gods and goddesses of archaic
polytheism. These deities represent the unchanging in the constantly
changing, the stability of change in the life of wanderers and farmers
alike.

Light and darkness are the
physical underpinning of the cave mysteries.
The cave
is a protected mediating area were the human and the archetypes
of nature touch. Its heart is an uterus, a place of new birth. The tunnel is a crawl or passage-way between stages
& stations of life and the otherworld (the beforelife and the
afterlife), the path of the seed to the ovary. In the natural darkness of the sanctum, events
such as the death of a hunter could be relived and the causes combatted in
a symbolical, allegorical way. Initiations could happen. The womb was the
temple of the great goddess, she who enfolds nature as a whole.

The Cro-Magnon were the
first to use grand rock cathedrals and their difficult entrances to invoke
the experience of
symbolical death and the subsequent
initiation into a new, more powerful, rejuvenated state of consciousness, enabling
one to move to a higher, stronger mode of being and awareness of being.
Perhaps a better hunter, healer and leader of others. These superior hominids were able
to artistically symbolize their religious and magical experiences, and
thus shape spiritual traditions and eventually develop
notions like heaven, hell, god and goddess, as well as
shamanism (the conscious control of trance) and later priesthood (the
specialization of magico-religious activities in more centralized
village societies). Their common experiences shaped the earliest myths.

The Pyramid Texts as well as the Amduat confirm this
architecture. After purifications and offerings to the deities, the king
(or the "ba of Re") is identified with Osiris to rejuvenate and to be
reborn as "the living Horus" (the risen Sun). Performed during earthly
life, this ceremony in itself duplicates the three steps : taking on the
Osiris form, totalizing the Osiris form, return from the Osiris form to
the Horus form. These totalizations makes him stand beyond the fundamental
difference providing the energy to the process in the Duat, namely Horus
versus Seth, righteousness versus wickedness, conscious good versus
conscious evil. Lastly, Osiris the king ascends to the heaven of Re and is
assimilated by Re. This last phase was the sole concern of
Akhenaten, who was the unique son of Re without reference to
Osiris or Amun (the "hidden" deities).

To operationalize and perform the rituals without initiating a new
Egyptian religion is the task of the philosopher of religion interested in
the living spiritual realities rather than their exoteric cast. In the
case of a dead religion, an exceptional condition can be tested : are the
ruins of a powerful religion effective enough to allow it to work its
magic ? This approach is more in tune with participant observation than
any phenomenological reduction (of the natural world) could be. But if an
esoteric "lodge" beguiles the philosopher, to him a "church" is anathema.

And Hermeticism ? Can egyptomania contribute ? Maybe to warn future
Kemetists of the dangers of fusing traditions as well as the futility of
comparing systems in the actual practice of religion (in ritual, magic &
prayer) ? Even in the Golden Dawn and its heir, Egyptian elements were
combined with Babylonian, Jewish, Greek, Christian and Hermeticist
sources.

The ultimate spiritual system is no Qabalah of Qabalah, as abstraction and
rationality summon, but the articulation of a clean, pure and efficient
celebration of the fundamental mystery of religion. In Egypt, this
mystery of life involves constant rejuvenation and the spiritualization of
all things material (and vice versa). This rejuvenation is brought
by an inundation guaranteed by Horus-Pharaoh, the eternal witness. The
"black land", the residue left after the waters receded, is the fertile
ground feeding the new cycle. Because of their syncretism,
Hermeticists have depleted the original thought form and were blind for
the ecology and economy of the Kemetic intention. Because of the meddle,
egyptomania is to be avoided.

What is the form of the basic ritual matrix provided by the historical
reconstruction ? The various ritual activities have been discussed
elsewhere. Let us summarize the overall intentions of Kemetism.
Ritual is not there to escape life on Earth or to compel the Deities (the
Greek flaw at work in Hermetism). Ritual is not a reenactment of a
covenant and man is not called to rectify ("tikun") the flaws of nature
(as in Judaism). Nor is there a special "order of grace" installed by the
Cross of Christ and addressed by ritual (as in Christianity). The
creator-god is not evil (as in Gnosticism).

This brings to the fore the fundamental trait of the Oriental concept of
the Divine. The Deities, the dramatis personae of nature, are a series of "powers" or natural differentials
with fixed laws in their retinue. They are born, culminate, withdraw, die
and are reborn every day together with Re (cf.
Amduat). They are the recurrent cycles of nature given form in
symbolical, analogical and visual ways. Rituals are then a series of
"natural operations" with automatic results "de opere operato".
Once these natural powers are understood and available, an efficient and
irreversible (magical) outcome ensues which no force stops. The "will of
the gods" is therefore the sum total of natural processes and their
inevitable results. No supernatural "order of grace" is posited, for the
deities themselves participate in the eternal cycle of Atum-Re (who
destroys creation to start it all over again ad infinitum). There
is no apocalypse, for the ultimate state is eternal recurrence. Identical
ideas are found in Buddhism and Taoism. By contrast, the Graeco-Abrahamic
tradition has elaborated on a monolithic, ontological & moral concept of
God. In such a moralizing system, what is more subtle is also better (cf.
evil as "privatio boni"). The violent
final outcome being the "New Jerusalem", a new, ideal world order ...

"Kemetism" (from "kmt", the native name of Egypt) refers to revivals of
the Ancient Egyptian religion developing in Europe and the United States from
the 1970s. These approaches often involve a historical "reconstruction" of
Ancient Egypt, filling in the obvious "gaps" with material which ante-dates the
tradition, like Hermetism and/or Hermeticism. New grammatical insights
& better translations point the way to different reconstructions, and the
process is ongoing and per definition incomplete.

Clearly contemporary Kemetism cannot just reproduce the Ancient Egyptian
tradition. Firstly, because only a basic outline of it is left, and
secondly because Kemetism embraces rational thought. Lastly, Pharaoh is
reinterpreted as representing the individual, witnessing "Higher Self",
and so accommodates a personal approach of the mysteries (no longer the
privilege of a small number of priest).

Kemetic spirituality attunes with and benefits from natural cycles.
Three fundamental movements are thus integrated : the daily movement of
the Earth (Horus-Pharaoh) around its axis (causing diurnal and nocturnal
hemispheres as well as the rising of 36 decans, stars and planets), the
monthly movement of the Moon (Osiris) around the Earth and the yearly
movement of the Earth around the Sun (Atum-Re). In fact, all Kemetic
rituals follow these rhythms, which provide the form or syntax of the
rituals (as well as their timing). The Lunar rites give rise to what could
be called the "Ceremony of Becoming Osiris", whereas the Solar ceremony is
one of Ascension to Re.

Qua content, the fundamental operation consists in returning to the "first
occurrence", the golden age of the Deities, and harvest the energy-surplus
available there. Only in this time of no time will common offerings and
voice-offerings, as Maat herself, be truly effective. This pleases the Deities enough
for them to dispatch their souls and vital power. Every time this happens,
nature is rejuvenated by the additional energy entering creation (and the
body) from the surrounding lifeless eternal waters (Nun) and their
autogenous potential (Atum). One is thus more and more perfected
(made more and more efficient) and this natural process
continues, here and in the hereafter, until one becomes a God, i.e. one of the Powers of nature.

"Do
not reveal the rituals You see in all mystery in the temples."Horus Temple - Edfu
- Chassinat,
1928, p.361.

At the ultimate point where
Deities produce Deities, the Kemetic intention has
been fulfilled and only silence prevails.